This is according to a Chinese astrology about me and i feel its soo true! It was in Chinese and i got it translated. It needed my time of birth, DOB and my name.
He is quite steadfast and reliable
Appreciates girls that are intelligent, has a good judgement and can
handle household chores well, can help him govern a family, gives him a
feeling of stability, so that he has no other worries and is able to
put everything into his career. After he goes home he wants to have a
wife to talk openly with him, and give him mental and emotional support.
Once in a relationship, will be very possessive and have lots of limits
.Therefore this kind of guy can be said as a guaranteed safe, model
good husband.
Has more mature looks,solid stature, a strong character,and can
adapt well.Strong sense of responsibility,caring and willing to be of
service,warm, gives people a sense of security .Willing to take the
initiative, can be quite blunt, proud(care about face) ,worry too much and bad
tempered at times.
OoOoOoOoO
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Lost Friends
I feel weird. Do close friendships last? They do supposedly. Why are they not close now, perhaps life has drifted them away far away from me? Or since i am a student i got more time to spare to keep in touch compared to them? I hope that last question is true.
I have many friends, many of them actually come and go, few only have stood beside ever since i was in my younger days till now that oso not all.
When i was in CSS active and all, i got many friends some were happy to have a fren like me so much so they have expressed it through their mails thanking me many times and also over msn and stuff. (not bragging n nothing about gf bf issues here) They became close and we did work closely together. We enjoyed it. I was glad i had been a good fren to others and also glad to have them as fren for they too have tought me alot. So i also tot that our friendship would last but it did not happen.
On the contrary they have now drifted away from keeping in touch. No more replies to mails, no more hi over msn or sms. What happen uh? Did i do something wrong or have I become of no use to them or were they faking it and do not know how to cherish those gud times? Or perhaps they wud say their life moved on? Even if it moves on i dont c anything wrong in catching up right?? Once in awhile keeping in touch or so.
I am also surprised that those who were not so close as compared to the others instead keep in touch with me although we have not met for a loooong time face to face. To my surprise there are those who seeked me to be fren keeps in touch with me more often, and i have met that person only once! that oso i still cant remember!
What is going on? Is there something wrong or is this just natural??
I think its due to work - TIME the usual devil. Cos those people i mentioned are already working and perhaps they feel i m just a student so a gap has been created. Hahah work oso i am still elder then some of them. Some are working and still keeping in touch!
Sometimes i also wonder - some of these guys who are keeping in touch with me - how long more will they do so??? How much should i keep them in heart so that later i wont get hurt or disappointed.
Should i treat them as case to case basis, when they smile i smile when they dont i dont?
Keeping in touch are at least a couple of months once would give each other positive energy and encouragement whereby you will know you were not forgotten and the sense of appreciation of past close friendships are still remembered. So i feel keeping in touch is important.
haha some people suddenly become close then suddenly dissapear. sigh ....
How am i to reciprocrate. Guess i should go with the flowlah.
It was written somewhere that i would have only few stedfast friends and i guess that would be good enough for me.
hahha sometimes i want to talk crap with them oso cannot end up talking serious stuff pulak ... dahlah org panggil aku uncle huhuh hehe
Is it difficult to hold on onto relationships till at times u get tired ... and want to drift away ...? Or does people think staying in a relationship (not gf bf) is like holding back oneself or getting oneself tied up to the other?
Well all i am asking is to keep in touchlah and dont get the feeling of being forgotten despite all the apraisals given when we were together. Makes them fake pulak d.
But i softlah - wont go hard on them perhaps they just busy.
I have many friends, many of them actually come and go, few only have stood beside ever since i was in my younger days till now that oso not all.
When i was in CSS active and all, i got many friends some were happy to have a fren like me so much so they have expressed it through their mails thanking me many times and also over msn and stuff. (not bragging n nothing about gf bf issues here) They became close and we did work closely together. We enjoyed it. I was glad i had been a good fren to others and also glad to have them as fren for they too have tought me alot. So i also tot that our friendship would last but it did not happen.
On the contrary they have now drifted away from keeping in touch. No more replies to mails, no more hi over msn or sms. What happen uh? Did i do something wrong or have I become of no use to them or were they faking it and do not know how to cherish those gud times? Or perhaps they wud say their life moved on? Even if it moves on i dont c anything wrong in catching up right?? Once in awhile keeping in touch or so.
I am also surprised that those who were not so close as compared to the others instead keep in touch with me although we have not met for a loooong time face to face. To my surprise there are those who seeked me to be fren keeps in touch with me more often, and i have met that person only once! that oso i still cant remember!
What is going on? Is there something wrong or is this just natural??
I think its due to work - TIME the usual devil. Cos those people i mentioned are already working and perhaps they feel i m just a student so a gap has been created. Hahah work oso i am still elder then some of them. Some are working and still keeping in touch!
Sometimes i also wonder - some of these guys who are keeping in touch with me - how long more will they do so??? How much should i keep them in heart so that later i wont get hurt or disappointed.
Should i treat them as case to case basis, when they smile i smile when they dont i dont?
Keeping in touch are at least a couple of months once would give each other positive energy and encouragement whereby you will know you were not forgotten and the sense of appreciation of past close friendships are still remembered. So i feel keeping in touch is important.
haha some people suddenly become close then suddenly dissapear. sigh ....
How am i to reciprocrate. Guess i should go with the flowlah.
It was written somewhere that i would have only few stedfast friends and i guess that would be good enough for me.
hahha sometimes i want to talk crap with them oso cannot end up talking serious stuff pulak ... dahlah org panggil aku uncle huhuh hehe
Is it difficult to hold on onto relationships till at times u get tired ... and want to drift away ...? Or does people think staying in a relationship (not gf bf) is like holding back oneself or getting oneself tied up to the other?
Well all i am asking is to keep in touchlah and dont get the feeling of being forgotten despite all the apraisals given when we were together. Makes them fake pulak d.
But i softlah - wont go hard on them perhaps they just busy.
GHKL the Great
was in HKL doing my electives for 1 month from June 13 to July 9. It was a great experience but i hope it wud stay that why cos i dun have the interest to go and work there. U r a kind of a stranger do your own work kind but well i may just know less.
HKL patient vise has of cos a greater variety coming from different creed compared to HSNZ. U got foreigners, malays indians and what not. Even the doctors also there are of all races. In addition you would come across suicide cases, homeless, jailbirds.
And of cos there is also a variety of diseases compared to HSNZ. I saw tetanus, reynauds. In the ward i was in is like a dumpster ward where all types of cases get admitted in there first only later distributed around to respective wards. So u can see psychiatric cases, GI cases incl hepatobiliary, even ortho. optha
Condition of ward HSNZ is better - less cramped, not like a market and not as hot. In HKL there are many cases of Hospital acquired pneumonia - whats there to wonder when it is so obvious that the ventilation is poor there. Also tak ceria, gloomy. One can faint there, so better have breakfast before work.
Doctors staff there are friendly and u wud get help when u ask. U can go anywhere provided ur basic courtesy is there to ask permission and greet. Altough they are nice better dont play around.
We meet other students from other uni who are also doing their electives there - AIMST, Liverpool, UPM, UKM - we did exchange a few words and stuff but they were busy with their own stuff.
What we do there is basically the same as what we do here in HSNZ - we followed ward rounds, clerked cases, did procedures (depends on ur supervisors) and sometimes helped doctors with some of their task including clerking and calling patients relatives.
Had the experience of helping a doctor to find a psychiatric patient next of kin by calling a list of number he gave. Yes - could have just called Jabatan Kebajikan but they wud take a week and more paperwork so to avoid that.... .
There the patient is seriously in you hands and you are expected to do everything for the patient. The nurses seem to do less work there. Some doctors say they are doing lots of unnecessary work and some which is not theirs....and yeah they are all more stressed up compared to the ones in HSNZ.
Had also the experience of my specialist asking me to do a peritoneal tap in a chronic liver disease patient. 1st time - ooo what honor.
Also had an opportunity to help a nurse get a manic state psy patient sit dwn for his injection. He later told me i cannot be trusted haha :P
My supervisor specialist told me not to go to clinic cos its a waste of time haha.
The turnover rate in the ward is very high - every day new patients are at the bed. This ward is the first stop ward. From here the patient is dx stabilized 1st line given then transferred to other proper wards or discharged.
At time one only can feel that HSNZ is much more in order and more systematized then HKL believe it or not but both has they pros and cons. HKL is not computerized not even partial.
Well to get into HKL - go to the website get the form from there, call them set a good repo and u wud get in. also depends on ur luck
HKL was a good experience.
HKL patient vise has of cos a greater variety coming from different creed compared to HSNZ. U got foreigners, malays indians and what not. Even the doctors also there are of all races. In addition you would come across suicide cases, homeless, jailbirds.
And of cos there is also a variety of diseases compared to HSNZ. I saw tetanus, reynauds. In the ward i was in is like a dumpster ward where all types of cases get admitted in there first only later distributed around to respective wards. So u can see psychiatric cases, GI cases incl hepatobiliary, even ortho. optha
Condition of ward HSNZ is better - less cramped, not like a market and not as hot. In HKL there are many cases of Hospital acquired pneumonia - whats there to wonder when it is so obvious that the ventilation is poor there. Also tak ceria, gloomy. One can faint there, so better have breakfast before work.
Doctors staff there are friendly and u wud get help when u ask. U can go anywhere provided ur basic courtesy is there to ask permission and greet. Altough they are nice better dont play around.
We meet other students from other uni who are also doing their electives there - AIMST, Liverpool, UPM, UKM - we did exchange a few words and stuff but they were busy with their own stuff.
What we do there is basically the same as what we do here in HSNZ - we followed ward rounds, clerked cases, did procedures (depends on ur supervisors) and sometimes helped doctors with some of their task including clerking and calling patients relatives.
Had the experience of helping a doctor to find a psychiatric patient next of kin by calling a list of number he gave. Yes - could have just called Jabatan Kebajikan but they wud take a week and more paperwork so to avoid that.... .
There the patient is seriously in you hands and you are expected to do everything for the patient. The nurses seem to do less work there. Some doctors say they are doing lots of unnecessary work and some which is not theirs....and yeah they are all more stressed up compared to the ones in HSNZ.
Had also the experience of my specialist asking me to do a peritoneal tap in a chronic liver disease patient. 1st time - ooo what honor.
Also had an opportunity to help a nurse get a manic state psy patient sit dwn for his injection. He later told me i cannot be trusted haha :P
My supervisor specialist told me not to go to clinic cos its a waste of time haha.
The turnover rate in the ward is very high - every day new patients are at the bed. This ward is the first stop ward. From here the patient is dx stabilized 1st line given then transferred to other proper wards or discharged.
At time one only can feel that HSNZ is much more in order and more systematized then HKL believe it or not but both has they pros and cons. HKL is not computerized not even partial.
Well to get into HKL - go to the website get the form from there, call them set a good repo and u wud get in. also depends on ur luck
HKL was a good experience.
On the Road I C U
There have been lots of bus accidents and some of them have been very tragic. People put the blame of the government and the bus companies but in the end no matter how for the accident to occur or not depends on the driver behind the wheel.
Nevertheless steps can be taken to at least minimize the risk or chances for an accident to occur.
I got one idea and perhaps my idea may already be in some1 else mind or perhaps in the shelves of the road transport ministry. My idea is as such :
Each bus has a speed detector. Whenever the bus driver breaks the speed limit an alarm maybe sounded to alert the driver and then a signal is sent over to the relevant authorities to take log of the speed break.
Each time a speed or warning is ignored it would be logged into the drivers portfolio and if it reaches a certain number he can get sacked and blacklisted.
By this method at least the drivers would really be afraid to break the rules. In addition this system can be managed by gov body.
This system perhaps can start on the buses on the hot routes then later go for all buses.
Nevertheless steps can be taken to at least minimize the risk or chances for an accident to occur.
I got one idea and perhaps my idea may already be in some1 else mind or perhaps in the shelves of the road transport ministry. My idea is as such :
Each bus has a speed detector. Whenever the bus driver breaks the speed limit an alarm maybe sounded to alert the driver and then a signal is sent over to the relevant authorities to take log of the speed break.
Each time a speed or warning is ignored it would be logged into the drivers portfolio and if it reaches a certain number he can get sacked and blacklisted.
By this method at least the drivers would really be afraid to break the rules. In addition this system can be managed by gov body.
This system perhaps can start on the buses on the hot routes then later go for all buses.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
my chairmancy .... kerusi !!!
Well, it's almost time for CSS's AGM(next week, July the 3rd). This means it is time to 'shoo' out the old committee and say 'hello' to the new ones. This also means that Gregory, the Kerusi, will be leaving CSS(and UCSI) for Kuala Terengganu. Before he leaves, cssucsi.blogspot.com sat down(in front of the computer) with him to discuss his tenure as President. Below is Part 1 of the fairly long chat...
1. Tell us about the beginning, how did you join CSS and how were you made the 1st President of CSS.
Well it was unexpected. I thought a CSS did not exist and i actually told Ivan there was none when he asked me. Then one day Ivan came up to me pula and said there was one and yup we were both excited.We went to one of the members house one night and realized it was a first gathering hahahaha. Both of us thought the group existed ages a go.. Ms June was leading the group and told us that contact has been made with Lifeline Ministry of SFX so we are hooked to themlah. Dunno how i got the first task to organize the following weeks' gatherings' activity and it was about Angels.
So as usual, I went back and got into business but unfortunately something came up and i did not attend that gathering but I passed my work and it was carried out together with a short movie screening and sharing too by the rest. After that about 6 gatherings or so were held and i attended only 1.Then came the exam and holiday season and no gatherings were held. To be honest i did not bother also because i myself was busy with medicine.
Then came a night where when i was walking back from UCSI to the condo i got a call from an unknown number. Uhmm who could it be?? I asked myself. Bah should be one of my classmates. Rupa rupanya it was Ms June. Ah maybe an invitation to join the next gathering. Tengok tengok 'Hey Greg can you take over this group!' she asked me. !!!! I declined and gave reasons for it and asked her too WHY ME??. (She only met me twice during those gatherings - so how can one know me??).
She said i was the first to pop up in her mind when thinking this. (?!?!??!) Ms June was sick and could not run the show. I told her i will think first.Hahaha - As i was thinking whether i can take over or not I was already planning how to set up CSS university level and join CMO. While contemplating on this issue i realized myself in ASAYO office asking how to set up a CSS when i was passing by Masjid Jamek one day, while on the way back to my kampung. Then I gathered some counterparts and then had a short meeting with Ms Jennifer from CMO in UCSI. The ball hence started rolling.
Forms to set up a society in UCSI were filled and complied too. Some research was done and we got to know that there are many Catholics around and we estimated bout 100. Ivan was a good fisherman and with his findings we decided to have an AGM. Well the turn out was poor and we realized our publicity was not strong enough so for the next 2 week we worked hard in publicity and the next AGM we saw 30 people turned out for it. Wohooo. And walla I became the first president. (I was still in contemplating mode haha).
Before all these events Fr. Valentine told Ivan and I that he wanted to see a CSS in UCSI. Hehe i did not feel wanting to take the initiative set up one also at that time. Guess his prayers were answered.Well God works in wonders and I was a Jonah here hahaha, finally stoped contemplating and said to myself "Woi!! You are the Pressie here and it is for a reason and a CSS is here also for a reason so get into business!!!". YOUR will be done. Without anymore hesitation i jumped into the building of the CSS here together with my new committee.
2. In the early part of CSS gathering, what were the obstacles that you faced as the President? Have these obstacles been resolved as you leave?
Well the first obstacles was getting everyone organized and 'into' CSS and that has been resolved and going well till now. Then it was finding a proper time to maximize the number of members and excos to attend each gathering. Won at times but till know it has not 100% resolved. UCSI timetables are not standardized and at every moment some one will either be having their exams, holidays or what so ever in uni. The number of attendance was fluctuating from as low as 4 to as high as 25 (normal gatherings excluding mass).
Next is people themselves who are difficult. Always give false hope and information hampering the EXCO's to do their job. Efficiency, responsibility, sincerity, sacrifice is quiet lacking as well as the will to explore and learn and to grow and mature in the faith. We are trying to change this through many ways but you know we only can bring the horse to the river but for it to drink is left up to the horse.
The other, is excuses, unreasonable ones....haish... . Well we cant force but we are still with our doors open and inside it there is much to gain which I feel bad as it is not reaching the members. The chances for a system itself not to work is about 30% the rest is human - 70%.
3. Tell us your best memory of CSS since it's birth almost one year ago.
The whole formation of setting up, carrying out and passing over CSS is an unforgettable memory itself.
Nothing specific in particular. Experiencing every moment to the fullest whether happy or sad are good memories.
4. If you could turn back time, what would you have changed in CSS?
Nothing. I am thankful with my committee members and saw every challenge as God's will and we are to go through it together. No regrets in this point. If it is not due to the past you would not have a future.Wanting to change the past in this mater is like not acknowledging one's mistake and not wanting to learn from it but wanting an easy way out to clear things. Not good.
5. How have each and every CSS committee grown since one year ago?
I feel all of them has learnt something of which you will have to ask them yourselves haha. However I believe they have become more mature by acquiring or brushing up their leadership skills and faith, becoming better. Nevertheless I also feel there are some who have missed out a bit haha. For me I have gained more experience in organization, PR and of course more knowledge of our faith through our gatherings which many have missed haha for not coming.
6. What do you want CSS members to benefit from the CSS gatherings? Are there aims or objectives for each gathering?
ATOMIC has its aims and objectives but basically we want the members to learn more about our faith in a higher level more than what has already been thought in church and the same time to form a circle of friends which will be quality witnesses of Christ in the university. Also to grow in faith together while being students trying to lead a Cristian life hence.
7. What do you think CSS needs the most and why? (money, members etc.)
It needs some sort of dedication and love in doing God's work and wanting to learn to really follow His ways and thus serving the people around. Thats what makes us different from all other societies (non-religious). The people in CSS will have to learn how to sacrifice a little. Jesus sacrificed himself for us, did he not? So why not we make some sacrifice too for the benefit of others. There is nothing to loose but only gains.
8. How did you feel after being thrown into the Angkasa swimming pool after the Easter party? haha - I have been thrown into many pools, many times before so it is not something new. But i was happy and touched and grateful to know that I have good friends around me. It was unexpected because i thought you guys were not into doing these kind of stuff. hahaha
9. As the outgoing president, do you have anything else to say to the new president?
Persevere, don't give up, pray and know that God is always with you. Be sincere in your duty, respect others and listen to your members and accommodate them and be their friend and not their boss. Run CSS as a family not as a corporate body. There will be ups and downs and it is not going to be easy so be strong and value those around you. Be responsible and learn to sacrifice and prioritize. To add - for the members pula - support your president because nowadays organization is no more a one way thing meaning it does not all lies in the hands of the leader. So the ups and downs of CSS lies also in the hands of the members too. Remember that CSS is not a corporate body or not like other societies, it is a family and it belongs to all. The leader is to drive you people safely and correctly to where you want to go collectively. I also feel that though with a small group make it a strong group, in faith and knowledge and friendship. The bulk will later come slowly. Lastly dont panic and stay cool and enjoy what you do
10. It must have been hard typing everything using CORRECT english grammar and so forth. (Haha...payback for all the emails you sent.) Anything to comment or justify to this?
I have no problem in my English - grammar and spelling. I type fast and i have many things to do so i don't check. Pardon me for that haha. For the many mails is because I don't have a computer myself and i do not know when i will get one then, so the moment something pops up my head and i want all to know i send a mail if not i forget too. Also i send many, is to inform all EXCO what is happening so later there would not be any excuse of not knowing what is going on. (Although the result is not 100%) Again this is not one way leadership. Everyone will have to know what others are doing only then it is easier to coordinate certain things while organizing stuff.
Last few words...of the very long chat...
I have enjoyed myself being the president or some would call me the Chair @ Kerusi hahaha (chairman) for the past one year. I have learnt a lot and made many friends within the university and also in other universities and without CSS i would not be able to do so. Without CSS i would not have a soul but might become more of a robot being churned out from the university. The experience gained i am very grateful and happy for, and i know that these experiences will definitely help me in future. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my EXCOs who are all good in their own ways and in their work. Sue, Bridgette, Byron, Ivan, Paul, Rebecca and the rest keep up the good work in the coming term and keep CSS alive.Lastly my sincere apologies if during my tenure as president i have hurt anyone through my actions or words.
Bon Voyage
1. Tell us about the beginning, how did you join CSS and how were you made the 1st President of CSS.
Well it was unexpected. I thought a CSS did not exist and i actually told Ivan there was none when he asked me. Then one day Ivan came up to me pula and said there was one and yup we were both excited.We went to one of the members house one night and realized it was a first gathering hahahaha. Both of us thought the group existed ages a go.. Ms June was leading the group and told us that contact has been made with Lifeline Ministry of SFX so we are hooked to themlah. Dunno how i got the first task to organize the following weeks' gatherings' activity and it was about Angels.
So as usual, I went back and got into business but unfortunately something came up and i did not attend that gathering but I passed my work and it was carried out together with a short movie screening and sharing too by the rest. After that about 6 gatherings or so were held and i attended only 1.Then came the exam and holiday season and no gatherings were held. To be honest i did not bother also because i myself was busy with medicine.
Then came a night where when i was walking back from UCSI to the condo i got a call from an unknown number. Uhmm who could it be?? I asked myself. Bah should be one of my classmates. Rupa rupanya it was Ms June. Ah maybe an invitation to join the next gathering. Tengok tengok 'Hey Greg can you take over this group!' she asked me. !!!! I declined and gave reasons for it and asked her too WHY ME??. (She only met me twice during those gatherings - so how can one know me??).
She said i was the first to pop up in her mind when thinking this. (?!?!??!) Ms June was sick and could not run the show. I told her i will think first.Hahaha - As i was thinking whether i can take over or not I was already planning how to set up CSS university level and join CMO. While contemplating on this issue i realized myself in ASAYO office asking how to set up a CSS when i was passing by Masjid Jamek one day, while on the way back to my kampung. Then I gathered some counterparts and then had a short meeting with Ms Jennifer from CMO in UCSI. The ball hence started rolling.
Forms to set up a society in UCSI were filled and complied too. Some research was done and we got to know that there are many Catholics around and we estimated bout 100. Ivan was a good fisherman and with his findings we decided to have an AGM. Well the turn out was poor and we realized our publicity was not strong enough so for the next 2 week we worked hard in publicity and the next AGM we saw 30 people turned out for it. Wohooo. And walla I became the first president. (I was still in contemplating mode haha).
Before all these events Fr. Valentine told Ivan and I that he wanted to see a CSS in UCSI. Hehe i did not feel wanting to take the initiative set up one also at that time. Guess his prayers were answered.Well God works in wonders and I was a Jonah here hahaha, finally stoped contemplating and said to myself "Woi!! You are the Pressie here and it is for a reason and a CSS is here also for a reason so get into business!!!". YOUR will be done. Without anymore hesitation i jumped into the building of the CSS here together with my new committee.
2. In the early part of CSS gathering, what were the obstacles that you faced as the President? Have these obstacles been resolved as you leave?
Well the first obstacles was getting everyone organized and 'into' CSS and that has been resolved and going well till now. Then it was finding a proper time to maximize the number of members and excos to attend each gathering. Won at times but till know it has not 100% resolved. UCSI timetables are not standardized and at every moment some one will either be having their exams, holidays or what so ever in uni. The number of attendance was fluctuating from as low as 4 to as high as 25 (normal gatherings excluding mass).
Next is people themselves who are difficult. Always give false hope and information hampering the EXCO's to do their job. Efficiency, responsibility, sincerity, sacrifice is quiet lacking as well as the will to explore and learn and to grow and mature in the faith. We are trying to change this through many ways but you know we only can bring the horse to the river but for it to drink is left up to the horse.
The other, is excuses, unreasonable ones....haish... . Well we cant force but we are still with our doors open and inside it there is much to gain which I feel bad as it is not reaching the members. The chances for a system itself not to work is about 30% the rest is human - 70%.
3. Tell us your best memory of CSS since it's birth almost one year ago.
The whole formation of setting up, carrying out and passing over CSS is an unforgettable memory itself.
Nothing specific in particular. Experiencing every moment to the fullest whether happy or sad are good memories.
4. If you could turn back time, what would you have changed in CSS?
Nothing. I am thankful with my committee members and saw every challenge as God's will and we are to go through it together. No regrets in this point. If it is not due to the past you would not have a future.Wanting to change the past in this mater is like not acknowledging one's mistake and not wanting to learn from it but wanting an easy way out to clear things. Not good.
5. How have each and every CSS committee grown since one year ago?
I feel all of them has learnt something of which you will have to ask them yourselves haha. However I believe they have become more mature by acquiring or brushing up their leadership skills and faith, becoming better. Nevertheless I also feel there are some who have missed out a bit haha. For me I have gained more experience in organization, PR and of course more knowledge of our faith through our gatherings which many have missed haha for not coming.
6. What do you want CSS members to benefit from the CSS gatherings? Are there aims or objectives for each gathering?
ATOMIC has its aims and objectives but basically we want the members to learn more about our faith in a higher level more than what has already been thought in church and the same time to form a circle of friends which will be quality witnesses of Christ in the university. Also to grow in faith together while being students trying to lead a Cristian life hence.
7. What do you think CSS needs the most and why? (money, members etc.)
It needs some sort of dedication and love in doing God's work and wanting to learn to really follow His ways and thus serving the people around. Thats what makes us different from all other societies (non-religious). The people in CSS will have to learn how to sacrifice a little. Jesus sacrificed himself for us, did he not? So why not we make some sacrifice too for the benefit of others. There is nothing to loose but only gains.
8. How did you feel after being thrown into the Angkasa swimming pool after the Easter party? haha - I have been thrown into many pools, many times before so it is not something new. But i was happy and touched and grateful to know that I have good friends around me. It was unexpected because i thought you guys were not into doing these kind of stuff. hahaha
9. As the outgoing president, do you have anything else to say to the new president?
Persevere, don't give up, pray and know that God is always with you. Be sincere in your duty, respect others and listen to your members and accommodate them and be their friend and not their boss. Run CSS as a family not as a corporate body. There will be ups and downs and it is not going to be easy so be strong and value those around you. Be responsible and learn to sacrifice and prioritize. To add - for the members pula - support your president because nowadays organization is no more a one way thing meaning it does not all lies in the hands of the leader. So the ups and downs of CSS lies also in the hands of the members too. Remember that CSS is not a corporate body or not like other societies, it is a family and it belongs to all. The leader is to drive you people safely and correctly to where you want to go collectively. I also feel that though with a small group make it a strong group, in faith and knowledge and friendship. The bulk will later come slowly. Lastly dont panic and stay cool and enjoy what you do
10. It must have been hard typing everything using CORRECT english grammar and so forth. (Haha...payback for all the emails you sent.) Anything to comment or justify to this?
I have no problem in my English - grammar and spelling. I type fast and i have many things to do so i don't check. Pardon me for that haha. For the many mails is because I don't have a computer myself and i do not know when i will get one then, so the moment something pops up my head and i want all to know i send a mail if not i forget too. Also i send many, is to inform all EXCO what is happening so later there would not be any excuse of not knowing what is going on. (Although the result is not 100%) Again this is not one way leadership. Everyone will have to know what others are doing only then it is easier to coordinate certain things while organizing stuff.
Last few words...of the very long chat...
I have enjoyed myself being the president or some would call me the Chair @ Kerusi hahaha (chairman) for the past one year. I have learnt a lot and made many friends within the university and also in other universities and without CSS i would not be able to do so. Without CSS i would not have a soul but might become more of a robot being churned out from the university. The experience gained i am very grateful and happy for, and i know that these experiences will definitely help me in future. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my EXCOs who are all good in their own ways and in their work. Sue, Bridgette, Byron, Ivan, Paul, Rebecca and the rest keep up the good work in the coming term and keep CSS alive.Lastly my sincere apologies if during my tenure as president i have hurt anyone through my actions or words.
Bon Voyage
Friday, September 24, 2010
Failure of Protestinism
Let me propose an outrageous suggestion. The 16th century Reformers of the church had good cause to protest against a church that was drunk on power and greed and which had largely reduced the faith to economics and political manipulation. While they did not mean to create a parallel church called Protestant this was how history panned out for reasons too numerous to mention here. The church in the West has since been fragmented into many denominations which has weakened its voice in the world and which is a falling away from Jesus’ promise “that you may be one”.
After 480 years or so the Protestant experiment has run out of steam and its reason for being has largely evaporated due to the reform of the Roman church. There is now a large consensus among professional theologians both Protestant and Catholic about the centre of the faith and this consensus is growing.
The question is: why do Protestants remain separated after most of the reasons for their separation have disappeared?
I was stimulated to write this article after reading a sermon by Stanley Hauerwas (yes, him again!) on Reformation Sunday. He admits that he does not like this fixture on the Protestant calendar because it tends to celebrate a dark event in the history of the Church, the schism in which we stand today.
While Protestants celebrate the things gained in the Reformation, often things that the Roman Church has also now caught up with, there is little mention of the things we have lost. The first is obvious, it is the unity promised by the Lord. Hauerwas expands:
I often point out that at least Catholics have the magisterial office of the Bishop of Rome to remind them that disunity is a sin. You should not overlook the significance that in several important documents of late, John Paul II has confessed the Catholic sin for the Reformation. Where are the Protestants capable of doing likewise? We Protestants feel no sin for the disunity of the Reformation. We would not know how to confess our sin for the continuing disunity of the Reformation. We would not know how to do that because we have no experience of unity.
Once the break with Rome had occurred the Protestant church found itself prey to the philosophical movements of modernity initiated by the philosophies of Descartes, Hobbes and Locke that undermined all received authority and produced the man who was his own orthodoxy.
This was the final blow to the unity of the Church because it gave philosophical warrant to the individual who was now expected to “make up his own mind”. While the Roman Church can be seen to hold out against this aspect of modernity, Protestants embraced it. Being Church no longer meant belonging to an alternative community but believing in the right things, as long as they were rational, in private.
John Henry Newman recognised that the problem with Anglicanism was rationalism. That is, faith was tried at the court of a particular kind of rationalism associated with natural science. Theology had always been rational on its own terms otherwise it could not have been any sort of discourse. Rationality has as many different forms as there are human activities, the danger is that one kind of rationality is prioritised over all others, the positivist rationality of empiricism.
From the point of view of positivist rationality the Roman church looks irrational, superstitious and backward. The fact that the Roman church holds together a vast range of Christians from South American peasants to sophisticated European and American believers, from the Irish to the Italian, from Franciscan to Dominican makes it difficult for us to image what it is like to be a Catholic. The Protestant imagination has an investment in imagining the worst if only to justify being apart.
If we believe that the Reformation, or rather the schism that it produced, was a tragedy for the church that continues in our time, then we must have very good reasons to remain Protestant. We are now far from Elizabethan England in which the Roman Church was a threat to political order and the smell of the burnings initiated by Queen Mary was still in our nostrils.
Both Protestant and Roman Churches have come a long way, particularly after Vatican II for the Roman. Many of the Protestant prejudices against Rome are no longer valid. One of the greatest fears Protestants have of the Roman Church is that it insists on interfering with our private lives, particularly in what happens in our beds. We Protestants have long since decided that what we do in private is our own business and no business of the Church. This is the attitude that left these Churches speechless in the face of the sexual revolution whose bitter fruits we now taste.
We believe that there is a limit to faith that leaves most aspects of our lives as they are. There is certainly no dying to the self to be raised in Christ.
One of the weaknesses of the Protestant Churches is that they are devoid of a teaching office whose role is to guide the people in the ways of faith. While we may protest that Rome has a tendency to micromanage the lives of its people, particularly with the use of tenuous arguments from natural theology, it is apparent that any church should have a strong teaching office that instructs the people in what it means to be Christian.
Readers may correct me but it seems that this absence in Protestant churches was produced by a reaction to the unfaithful way the Roman Church used its power in the 16th century and the reformers emphasis on grace over the law. The severely reduced teaching office of Protestant Churches means that clergy cannot be leaders but only cheerleaders. Liberalism, that slippery product of modernity, ensures that no definite stand may be taken about anything. This means that Rome often looks legalistic and often it is, unreasonably so. If the sin of Protestantism is that it cannot say anything, the sin of Rome is that it says too much.
The fragmentation of Protestant denominations has produced a spiritual marketplace in which churches compete for believers and in which believers may choose which suits them best. The balance has thus swung from God addressing us to ourselves choosing which denomination best satisfies our needs. Because self assertion is the essence of Enlightenment thinking we experience no anomaly in this.
Not only does this situation throw the emphasis onto the believer it also distorts the life of the church that now looks to its own survival. The Holy Spirit is replaced by the techniques of the church growth movement and those nauseating signs that we find in the front of Protestant churches. The capitulation to modernism has become the capitulation to market forces and the biblical notion that the church is a charismatic body is obscured.
One of the barriers to Protestants going over to Rome is the idea that Rome requires unthinking obedience. But the Church is not fused with Christ, although the Roman Church has often behaved as if it were. The individual believer also stands before his Lord. This is a relationship that cannot be completely taken over by the Church.
In other words the Church may be the body of Christ in the world, but its faithlessness will always mean that it is incomplete, as its history demonstrates. This is not to say that the relationship between the believer and his Lord is in any way complete but that the believer must listen to the voice of the Church in the council of his own conscience.
It is interesting that recent Papal encyclicals now argue their case. This means that blind obedience is not the model for belief but that we are expected to understand what we believe and why.
While the sin of Protestants is to reduce the status of the church in favour of the individual, the sin of Rome has been to ignore its incompleteness in being the body of Christ and tend towards totalitarianism. Both of these movements are disastrous for the church, the one producing faith only on our terms and the other suffocating the individual spiritual journey.
But what should determine our allegiance now that the cat of schism is out of the bag? Is the unity that Rome represents a determining factor? Is it time for Protestants to return to the arms of mother Church? What exactly is it that is holding us back and are the reasons we hold back still valid?
Whatever we decide, it is obvious that long after Protestantism has been swept from the face of the earth, the Roman church will stand. Although faithfulness is not necessarily linked with success (witness the mega churches) it is significant that with all of the concessions to modernism Protestant churches continue to decline. One is tempted to draw the conclusion that the concessions are the problem and they have produced a church that is indistinguishable from the rest of society and thus irrelevant.
It is clear that the ecumenical movement has largely failed and that the unification of the Church from the top down will not happen in the foreseeable future. But that does not mean that unification cannot happen from below as believers seek a more complete expression of the faith. Why should believers wait for the hierarchy to make a move?
It is significant how well the leaders of the churches have settled down to the present arrangement. If a Catholic Archbishop were to launch a program inviting Protestants to explore the Roman church, or the other way around, there would be accusations of sheep stealing. Apparently, peaceful separation is preferable to any attempt at unification that may cause hurt. This is of course in the spirit of the age that values toleration over honest debate. But one would wish that meetings of the heads of Churches were a more robust affair instead of supporting the pretence that everything is well in our separated state.
Both the Anglican and the Uniting Church in Australia declare that they are part of the “One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church” and that they cling to the early creeds of the Church. In other words they are not separated from Rome by heresy, they are separated by the continuing influence of historical events and by church culture. To be so determined is an abnegation of the freedom of the gospel which orders culture aright under the Lordship of Christ.
Protestants are caught between the sins of Rome and (in the Anglican case) Canterbury. Perhaps it is time now to consider the unity of the Church from below and for Protestants to push away years of misunderstanding and take a closer look. It may be that they discover a different church than that which they imagined and that consequently the path to union does not seem impossible.
not i write wan : http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=6720&page=0
After 480 years or so the Protestant experiment has run out of steam and its reason for being has largely evaporated due to the reform of the Roman church. There is now a large consensus among professional theologians both Protestant and Catholic about the centre of the faith and this consensus is growing.
The question is: why do Protestants remain separated after most of the reasons for their separation have disappeared?
I was stimulated to write this article after reading a sermon by Stanley Hauerwas (yes, him again!) on Reformation Sunday. He admits that he does not like this fixture on the Protestant calendar because it tends to celebrate a dark event in the history of the Church, the schism in which we stand today.
While Protestants celebrate the things gained in the Reformation, often things that the Roman Church has also now caught up with, there is little mention of the things we have lost. The first is obvious, it is the unity promised by the Lord. Hauerwas expands:
I often point out that at least Catholics have the magisterial office of the Bishop of Rome to remind them that disunity is a sin. You should not overlook the significance that in several important documents of late, John Paul II has confessed the Catholic sin for the Reformation. Where are the Protestants capable of doing likewise? We Protestants feel no sin for the disunity of the Reformation. We would not know how to confess our sin for the continuing disunity of the Reformation. We would not know how to do that because we have no experience of unity.
Once the break with Rome had occurred the Protestant church found itself prey to the philosophical movements of modernity initiated by the philosophies of Descartes, Hobbes and Locke that undermined all received authority and produced the man who was his own orthodoxy.
This was the final blow to the unity of the Church because it gave philosophical warrant to the individual who was now expected to “make up his own mind”. While the Roman Church can be seen to hold out against this aspect of modernity, Protestants embraced it. Being Church no longer meant belonging to an alternative community but believing in the right things, as long as they were rational, in private.
John Henry Newman recognised that the problem with Anglicanism was rationalism. That is, faith was tried at the court of a particular kind of rationalism associated with natural science. Theology had always been rational on its own terms otherwise it could not have been any sort of discourse. Rationality has as many different forms as there are human activities, the danger is that one kind of rationality is prioritised over all others, the positivist rationality of empiricism.
From the point of view of positivist rationality the Roman church looks irrational, superstitious and backward. The fact that the Roman church holds together a vast range of Christians from South American peasants to sophisticated European and American believers, from the Irish to the Italian, from Franciscan to Dominican makes it difficult for us to image what it is like to be a Catholic. The Protestant imagination has an investment in imagining the worst if only to justify being apart.
If we believe that the Reformation, or rather the schism that it produced, was a tragedy for the church that continues in our time, then we must have very good reasons to remain Protestant. We are now far from Elizabethan England in which the Roman Church was a threat to political order and the smell of the burnings initiated by Queen Mary was still in our nostrils.
Both Protestant and Roman Churches have come a long way, particularly after Vatican II for the Roman. Many of the Protestant prejudices against Rome are no longer valid. One of the greatest fears Protestants have of the Roman Church is that it insists on interfering with our private lives, particularly in what happens in our beds. We Protestants have long since decided that what we do in private is our own business and no business of the Church. This is the attitude that left these Churches speechless in the face of the sexual revolution whose bitter fruits we now taste.
We believe that there is a limit to faith that leaves most aspects of our lives as they are. There is certainly no dying to the self to be raised in Christ.
One of the weaknesses of the Protestant Churches is that they are devoid of a teaching office whose role is to guide the people in the ways of faith. While we may protest that Rome has a tendency to micromanage the lives of its people, particularly with the use of tenuous arguments from natural theology, it is apparent that any church should have a strong teaching office that instructs the people in what it means to be Christian.
Readers may correct me but it seems that this absence in Protestant churches was produced by a reaction to the unfaithful way the Roman Church used its power in the 16th century and the reformers emphasis on grace over the law. The severely reduced teaching office of Protestant Churches means that clergy cannot be leaders but only cheerleaders. Liberalism, that slippery product of modernity, ensures that no definite stand may be taken about anything. This means that Rome often looks legalistic and often it is, unreasonably so. If the sin of Protestantism is that it cannot say anything, the sin of Rome is that it says too much.
The fragmentation of Protestant denominations has produced a spiritual marketplace in which churches compete for believers and in which believers may choose which suits them best. The balance has thus swung from God addressing us to ourselves choosing which denomination best satisfies our needs. Because self assertion is the essence of Enlightenment thinking we experience no anomaly in this.
Not only does this situation throw the emphasis onto the believer it also distorts the life of the church that now looks to its own survival. The Holy Spirit is replaced by the techniques of the church growth movement and those nauseating signs that we find in the front of Protestant churches. The capitulation to modernism has become the capitulation to market forces and the biblical notion that the church is a charismatic body is obscured.
One of the barriers to Protestants going over to Rome is the idea that Rome requires unthinking obedience. But the Church is not fused with Christ, although the Roman Church has often behaved as if it were. The individual believer also stands before his Lord. This is a relationship that cannot be completely taken over by the Church.
In other words the Church may be the body of Christ in the world, but its faithlessness will always mean that it is incomplete, as its history demonstrates. This is not to say that the relationship between the believer and his Lord is in any way complete but that the believer must listen to the voice of the Church in the council of his own conscience.
It is interesting that recent Papal encyclicals now argue their case. This means that blind obedience is not the model for belief but that we are expected to understand what we believe and why.
While the sin of Protestants is to reduce the status of the church in favour of the individual, the sin of Rome has been to ignore its incompleteness in being the body of Christ and tend towards totalitarianism. Both of these movements are disastrous for the church, the one producing faith only on our terms and the other suffocating the individual spiritual journey.
But what should determine our allegiance now that the cat of schism is out of the bag? Is the unity that Rome represents a determining factor? Is it time for Protestants to return to the arms of mother Church? What exactly is it that is holding us back and are the reasons we hold back still valid?
Whatever we decide, it is obvious that long after Protestantism has been swept from the face of the earth, the Roman church will stand. Although faithfulness is not necessarily linked with success (witness the mega churches) it is significant that with all of the concessions to modernism Protestant churches continue to decline. One is tempted to draw the conclusion that the concessions are the problem and they have produced a church that is indistinguishable from the rest of society and thus irrelevant.
It is clear that the ecumenical movement has largely failed and that the unification of the Church from the top down will not happen in the foreseeable future. But that does not mean that unification cannot happen from below as believers seek a more complete expression of the faith. Why should believers wait for the hierarchy to make a move?
It is significant how well the leaders of the churches have settled down to the present arrangement. If a Catholic Archbishop were to launch a program inviting Protestants to explore the Roman church, or the other way around, there would be accusations of sheep stealing. Apparently, peaceful separation is preferable to any attempt at unification that may cause hurt. This is of course in the spirit of the age that values toleration over honest debate. But one would wish that meetings of the heads of Churches were a more robust affair instead of supporting the pretence that everything is well in our separated state.
Both the Anglican and the Uniting Church in Australia declare that they are part of the “One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church” and that they cling to the early creeds of the Church. In other words they are not separated from Rome by heresy, they are separated by the continuing influence of historical events and by church culture. To be so determined is an abnegation of the freedom of the gospel which orders culture aright under the Lordship of Christ.
Protestants are caught between the sins of Rome and (in the Anglican case) Canterbury. Perhaps it is time now to consider the unity of the Church from below and for Protestants to push away years of misunderstanding and take a closer look. It may be that they discover a different church than that which they imagined and that consequently the path to union does not seem impossible.
not i write wan : http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=6720&page=0
When will they ever learn
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=6720&page=0
http://www.catholicscomehome.org/
http://www.facebook.com/notes/catholic-church/catholic-apologetics-question-of-the-day-part-2/163219347024954
http://www.facebook.com/notes/catholic-church/catholic-apologetics-question-of-the-day/163206620359560
http://www.catholicscomehome.org/
http://www.facebook.com/notes/catholic-church/catholic-apologetics-question-of-the-day-part-2/163219347024954
http://www.facebook.com/notes/catholic-church/catholic-apologetics-question-of-the-day/163206620359560
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