With God’s blessing, I can have 4 wives

A very controversial issue that has plague the islamic religion in the 21st century.  But listen and view this video, you get a better picture of what it was really meant to be. There are many reasons behind this polygamy marriage and mis-interpreted.

I have read it somewhere that it was because of the holy wars between the Christians and Muslims, where most of the muslim man & boys have gone to war and that the population of men & boys have depleted while the women & girls soars and it has become a social problem because a lot of women will never find a husband due to the shortage of men & boys. Another issue is that the large widow population among the muslim community due to their death of husbands in the war. Something has to be done and that’s why the marriage of 4 wives became law to solve their social problems. Today, well you can’t just suddenly abolish it and of course there are some cases where men manipulate it for their sexual desires. But then how to draw a line between sexual desires and serving the community. Therefore, to have 4 wives is actually to solve a community problem but does it apply today? If you watch the clip above of Ahmad Deedat speech , it still does but then he mentioned that in the quran, it is an option, not a must.

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In the name of GOD, please “sleep” with my wives and daughters

Marco Polo

It is hard to believe but there are such practice in the name of GOD.  Refer to picture below which I  have copied from Marco Polo’s travels book – from “Peking to Bengal” It is customary that when men from foreign land comes, the husbands will bring them to their tents to let their women entertain them while the husbands have to stay away until the foreigner decides to leave. It is a custom that if they do that, their GOD will be pleased and will enriched them with temporal blessings in great abundance.

Page 172 - Marco Polo's travels (From Peking to Bengal)

A virgin in this land is considered being cursed by their gods, if she is favored by god then men should favor or want them, meaning to say, if you are a virgin then you must have done something wrong to the gods that’s why men don’t sleep with you.

So no man in their right mind will marry a virgin. A woman is worthless if she has no experience of sex with men. The more men she have sex with, the more precious and reputable she becomes.

This place is somewhere in Tibet according to the travels of Marco Polo.

mmmm sounds like –  Holy Prostitution?

Tibetan women - note: this picture has nothing to do marco polo's travels but merely to show how tibetan women dress up

Just as I have thought so, it turns out to be prostitution

From a holy practice, soon the ease of making a living with sex is so easy and profitable, the religion now has a 2nd agenda,  not that I agree with the 1st agenda or the 2nd agenda but it’s our human manipulation of religion as a base to make something  acceptable because it is beneficial but then again if a religion is not beneficial to it’s believers, it will gradually fade away. So the search of GOD continues and evolves.

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Life after death

Almost all religion I suppose talks about life after death. What does it really mean to us? What’s so important that we have to believe that there is life after death?

I ask myself first, logically if there is life after death, will I be the same person?

I presume it is NOT because if I am then I should know my previous one before this one or maybe this is my first one but then have you ever heard of some one saying it’s the 2nd life or their 100th life? nor has any normal thinking person say Oh I did come across this experience or that experience in my previous lives. No..

so that means it has nothing to do with this life, your previous and your next life, you (as in the name now) don’t exist anymore when you die, so what’s so important or crucial about this life compared to the next? Now to make matters worse, which religion’s next life is the correct path. Yup, it’s complicated which explains the turmoil of our world that we live in. If you look closely at all the wars, it boils down to religion and their beliefs. People die in the name of god or die in the belief that it’s for god.

But if you really take a religious book and read, it preaches love and only love and non voilence.  Something is wrong somewhere.  There must be some misinterpretation somewhere.

Anyone reading this, be my guest, I am sure alot of people would like to know the answer…

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In search of GOD

A topic that is a taboo in the olden days, if it was a few hundreds ago, I think my head would have been chopped off. hehe I know most of us would avoid such kinds of discussion because it is a serious matter and beliefs are something we don’t discuss openly.

No, I am not going to start preaching here or try to convert anyone to whatever kind of religion. I am not going to dilute anyone’s belief of a certain religion here. Well, it is the 21st century and we cannot hide anymore. No religion or government will burn books to condemn a certain religion because the internet has links to almost any kind of religion or occult that you can think of. It’s merely a click away.

We have come a long way in search of GOD, beliefs of god which were once terrifying are now just ancient monuments of a silly past or probably a King's way to rule over their subjects whereby Kings were considered as gods which probably now we see them as a trick to keep their subjects from revolts

In search for GOD is to question yourself, to strengthen your belief if you have any and to know what the other parts of the world thinks in terms of their meaning of  GOD. Needless to say, everyone knows there are so many religions and beliefs and how complicated this issue is and I think it will be a very interesting topic to discuss. Why do certain groups of people do certain things in the name of religion or in the name of GOD. The more we listen to others, the more we understand why.

Reasoning is not always the best method to understanding GOD but then what other ways do we have? Are we to close our eyes, clear our minds and just believe in it? Are we to just ignore the facts and follow our intuitions? A simple Yes will solve everything but then in reality it is not that simple.

Some people swear they were atheist but when they confront with death, the first word out of their mouth is oh thank god when they escape or cheated death. Being in a country of multi-racial and so many cultures, it would be interesting to know what others think or believe in order that we understand why they do so in their culture.

Could it be one day, a thousand over years from now, they would laugh at us how silly we have been as we now see the Egyptians in our religion and beliefs.

The human mind always fear the unknown, when man steps onto the moon, to most Asians, it was once a god but now with the understanding that it's just another small planet, the moon festival is now just another old asian culture,some still do while some don't anymore

I will make a series in this category “In search of GOD”  because we can’t answer or discuss in just one posting. It will be an endless and endless series as we touch on a certain interesting topic of a specific culture. Should you like to share anything here, please email to me at 7uncle@live.com.my and I shall post it up.

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Cinderella was born as Yeh Hsien

The fairy tale story that is in the heart of every child even adults and is already 300 over years old. Charles Perrault – the author of modern Cinderella in 1690s. There are over 500 versions of Cinderella in Europe alone.

Cinderella means little ash girl

Why is Cinderella so popular, why does it touch everyone’s heart? Let’s us look into the ingredients of a good evergreen fairy tale story. It has a good, evil & magic in the story line. The 3 main ingredients needed to make a fairy tale story. Good will always prevail over evil and with magic. If we look closely, it spells out our own feelings of our own encounters  in life. The required deeds that we do to over come our own problems using our own wisdom as the magical force to attain our success of a certain matter. The hardship we go thru’ and the rewards after that from a sudden awakening of our own mind like magical force we were able to see more clearly our rewards after the hardship.

Did you know that Cinderella originated from China. Yes China, popularly known as Yeh Hsien told in the 9th century, 800 years before European created Cinderella. If you read the story of Cinderella, the most significant part of the story is the “glass Slipper or golden shoes” in some stories, the evil step-mother, the ugly sisters, the ball or party, the king/prince and of course the magic.

I was watching Discovery Channel – China Whisper, I was fascinated with their discovery of how they trace the origin of Cinderella. The search started from Shanghai then up to the north-west and down to the south. Surprisingly, the story came from a native tribe in Nanning – The Zhuang tribes.  According to the author who wrote the story during the Tang Dynasty, it was supposedly told by a servant.

Cinderella - a servant's story, only one who has been will know what it is like to be a servant and the hardship of chores

The first Cinderella story is about a young girl – yeh hsien being bullied by her step-mother and step-sisters, always giving her the worst household chores to do. One day they found out that yeh hsien has a “pet fish”, her only friend and enjoyment, and the step-mother stole the fish and cooked it and ate it.

Yeh Hsien -a Chinese Cinderella, a story in the 9th century being told 800 years before the 1st modern Cinderella was told in Europe in the 17th Century

Poor Yeh Hsien cried and she took the remains of the fish bones and kept it in a box and when night falls, the box will glow and has magical powers. What yeh hsien wants, it will grant her wishes. One night she wish she could attend the village festival party and her wishes were granted and she got a beautiful dress and a pair of golden cloth shoes. She attend the party, being worried that the step-mother and sisters could recognise her, she ran home but left one shoe at the party in a hurry to run home. A trader found the golden shoe and present it to a neighbouring village chief and the hunt for the owner of the shoe began. bla bla.. at last they found that  yeh hsien foot fits the shoe and the village chief brought her home and married her…

Walt Disney's Cinderella is the most popular of them all

Anyway, it is believed that the story must gave been told to travellers along the silk road and that’s how the Yeh Hsien’s story reached Europe. If you read about Chinese ancient history, you will realize that shoes can differentiate  and signifies some royalty values. Foot binding – to have small feet signifies power and royalty. You can’t have small feet if you are a peasant girl because you need to work for a living. Therefore finding a small feet among the villager becomes something intriguing.

Foot-binding - a chinese customs - a painful and pitiful custom to prove that you are from a royal or wealthy family. To criple yourself so that you can't walk without assistance, a privilege only the royalty and the rich could afford.

Another fact that they found out is that the Zhuang tribes have annual “mating festivals” – a day when the women and men will sing their hearts out to woo one another finding their future mate.

A Zhuang trible woman - Cinderella would probably look like this

The Chinese were the first to round the world, hundreds of years before Columbus did and now Cinderella was copied from China. I think there will be alot of fascinating discoveries as the search for more historical facts begins as China opens their country to the world.

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The next generation

My son - Danell on 8TV on mother's cooking during CNY

The Lee family watching TV on the eve of Chinese New Year.  Being the Malaysian Idol, the media and press will always come up with some stuffs for you to do and share with the nation.

 

They were all once tiny tots sitting on my lap

You will realize how time flies, when you see those small kids are now young ladies all grown up.

All the niece and nephews & friend. They are now all grown ups, a part of the future generation of the Lee families - 2 generations at play

When we were kids, things were different, we did not have the luxuries of what the kids have now. We would just play among ourselves in the village with some fire-crackers and some new cheap toys. Visiting relatvies were limited to just a few neighbours around the village and town. Exchanging of red packet was not as exciting as what we have now hehe. Most of our uncles and aunties stay far away and those days red packets are very small… 20cents, 50 cents, rm1.20 and rm2.00 is considered big amount.

Wives, sisters and daughters at play

It is on this special day, the Lee family plans some entertainment to entertain all. We have games from the old to the very young and every one will be in some games of some sort. It always makes us giggle and laugh, especially for the young children when they see their mum and dad playing funny games, something that they don’t see everyday. Especially if your mum is the one who is the mumified, you will laugh until to tears when you see that she has to jump and walk from one end of the yard to the other in a race.

The uncles with their kindergarden drawing game

You will laugh until your stomach cramps when you see your grandfathers and fathers final drawings of how a cow would look like. Each of us did not know what to expect, we were given an instruction with a piece of paper – each one of us has a direct instruction like – draw a left hand, draw a right leg, draw a body. That’s all and then suddenly they took out a drawing of a cow’s head and ask us to patch it up to make a final drawing to the laughter of the crowd when they see it will turn out.

Read your instructions carefully or disaster will strike.

and this one created the biggest laugh of all, when someone wrote the instruction instead of drawing the instruction. Well, in the excitement and time limit, you forget what you are suppose to do but when you think back, you will laugh at yourself.

The stone and scissors games with a few changes this year

 Well, part of the fun has been diluted away with the raincoat due to the fact that most did not expect to get wet. It will start with the challenge of the stone and scissors to see who wins, and the winner will get to answer first. The comes the interesting part, the questions will be about the Lee family like what is great grandma’s name, what is Danell’s father’s name, What is eldest uncle’s sign (seh). That’s when we found out how little we know about each other. hahaha and the loser gets wet if you cannot answer, if both cannot answer both get wet.

the uncles too have to play this game

The Uncles too have to play this game… the small ones will laugh out loud. What is grandma’s age? hahahaha as they struggle to try to recall the age… My turn came and the question was simple, what year was last year, I said “2008” to the laughter of the crowd when the emcee said “eh, who don’t know last year was 2008, YEAR OF THE MOUSE la !!!” hahaha

The final event of the night. - The grand prize lucky draw

The final and most interesting of all is the lucky draw to your biggest ang pow of the night – the biggest prize is 1,000 ringgit and a few 500s, 150s, 120s,100s,50s, and lots n lots of 10s hehe. Everyone is a winner but let’s see who gets the biggest one. First you have to pick a number which is fair as to who gets to draw the angpow first and then will be luck whether what you have taken. Exciting…. as each unmarried member tries their luck.

the maids are considered as family too

 As one maid confessed “Even my new year is not as happy as the Chinese New year, Every year this is the best time of my life, some of our maids have stayed with us for more then 10 over years, to some grandchildren, they are like the 2nd mother to them”

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The Heritage

25th Jan 2009 – the eve of Chinese New year.

The heritage

My family with my mum

Some things money just can’t buy. Your heritage, your family tree and not only that, but when your whole 4 generations could still come together every year to meet and have fun, exchange wishes, exchanging views, finding out more about one another and counting how many new ones this year. Every year, the favorite questions that will always be a subject, who are the new arrivals, the new link of another generation as it spreads down wide and deep. We have lost count, we did not have a proper database of information to track the link and hopefully, it will start this year as I will spend some time to start collecting information and setting up a database so that each and everyone of us can add in the new links and it will also as a Lee family news bulletin board. To exchange news of one another.

our famous "red packet" long queue - every year it gets longer and longer

The famous long queue line of angpow exchange has been our tradition for decades, well, when you have a big group, the chances of missing out giving angpow is a sure thing, it is impossible to know who you have given and who you have not given. So to design and to provide an angpow trading platform, it all has to be done at the same time so if you want your angpow, come and get it or you will be left out and if you do not wish to give out angpow, then don’t come too early hehe. Just joking, giving angpow is a gesture, it doesn’t matter how much is inside the angpow but usually of course you must have something inside the red packet. I know now it’s quite common thing to do that is to put a lottery ticket inside as “angpow” now that would be real one if you strike 1st price hehe Or else then it’s worth RM2.00

My 2 grandsons - Shung & Swin collecting their "red packet" from the elders of the Lee Family

Every year some of us will have to crack our heads, what games or events are we gonna have this year and so far so good every year we always have something new. This year is a very special year. Our first “ang pow” lucky draw, a super great idea, yes everyone who is a Lee member just love the idea because they don’t lose anything but only gain more or less.. hehe.. Every unmarried Lee member who came to the CNY eve is eligible. Now this is something that will draw the full attention of all members of the Lee family, the lucky draw pool is worth thousands of dollars and the winner could walk away with a thousand ringgit and of course we have small 2nd and 3rd prizes and consolation prizes. No one is left out, every unmarried member of the Lee family who came will be eligible and everyone will win a prize but it’s a matter of how much you win and every year from this year onwards.

The one day when our mum is the idol with cameras flashing away like a superstar

My mum – when you are the head and the oldest of them all, you will be like a superstar when all the families will come together to take pictures with you.  It is the one day all the Lee Family will get together and take family pictures with mum for the album.

A Japanese retired couple join us this year

A Japanese couple joined us this year to celebrate the chinese new year. He was fascinated with our systematic arrangement and intrigue with the long queue of children and grandchildren. They joined in to give redpackets too. They are retired citizens from Japan on a special package by our government that you can retire in Malaysia provided you pass all the criterias given by our government. Penang Island is a good place for retirement. Nice weather, beautiful beaches and peaceful environment.

Grandma's residence - the meeting place every chinese new year when all the children and grandchildren and great grandchildren would come and stay over for a night on the eve of chinese new year.

 

The view from the residence is Bukit Mertajam (Mertajam hill) the name of the town is from this hill and the house was buit on top of a smaller hill with this lovely view and cool fresh air.

The garden where my late father will tend to those days when he was alive is now the playground and the center of activities every chinese new year

 

Swan (my wife) on 8TV sharing with the nation - a home cooking session for chinese new year, a pre-recorded clip done at our house in Kuala Lumpur earlier.

More pictures of the chinese new year.. click here

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