As of 21st September 2004, thescarfer is officially someone’s girlfriend.

*insert a big “YAY!” here*

More importantly, the girlfriend of someone kind, gentle and loving - lets just hope he stays that way. ^_~ But yes, after an emotionally abusive relationship and ten long months of moving on (AND trying to get rid of the hurt…doing everything possible including trying to make the Ex’s life a misery), she is finally happy.

Never mind that he is not good looking, or has a little belly, or that he is a good one head and a shoulder taller than her. Does that all matter? She has a belly (she calls them spare tyres) too…and she is not pretty. Cute maybe but not pretty. At least they have one thing in common: gorgeous eyes - hers are dark velvety chocolate and his a kaledeiscope of brown and green.

How it happened? Well, he brought up the topic again last night - or did she (who knows?) - she gave it a little bit thought, threw caution to the wind and said a resounding yes. They will be celebrating this occassion (or at least she is planning to celebrate it - thescarfer always celebrates every occassion that is not of common occurance in the everyday life!) when he comes to visit in slightly over a week’s time.

She is excited but more importantly, she is pleasantly spooked - as if this was a first love all over again. And there is this little bubble of hope, eternal happiness and peace in her - somehow erasing her fears and pains behind. She is no longer unsure of herself unlike how she was in the past but confident and stronger - and more importantly, he likes her this way.

What makes her happier is that this time, she caught an affectionate man who is more about action than talking. He calls her, he talks to her whenever he can online or otherwise, he makes sure that she is happy (he warned one of his friends not to tease her because that friend upsets her a lot), he is touchy-feely (*winks*), he is not afraid to tell people about her, he comes up every week to see her - or whenever he can and he sure is more confident than most men she know. It is an important criteria for thescarfer as she tops most regular men in terms of intellect and maturity.

Her students remarked that she has been absolutely glowing and utterly radiant. It is as if a new lease on life (and ultimately love) has been given to her.

Hope floats, they say. Now she truly and wonderfully believes in it. Funny how life has a way of turning things around.

We will see if many good things will come out of this man…and thescarfer has a good feeling about that.

:D:

It is bad enough that we are just about the only species that kills its own kind for power, for space, for food…for fun.

It gets even worse when the tranquility of your quiet Monday night is interupted by visions of intense human suffering.

It hurts the heart when the suffering is just around the corner, our next door neighbour, the Indonesians.

Suddenly, the open-fires, the exodus, the glimpse of sadness in their eyes - it all makes sense.

Open-fires are the cheapest and most effective method of clearing a field - everything else is too expensive. With nearly more than half of its population living below the poverty line, people would spent what little money they have getting food. Subsidies for education, electricity, water, petrol and food have all been reduced, if not disappeared.

Someone once told me that money made all the difference; that if he was rich, he would use the money to help people. Instead I shot this back to him, “Why wait until you are a millionnaire? You can help people now - IF you wanted to. You do not need to be filthy rich.” All I got was a “But loads of money makes REAL differences.”

Has it really?

Multinationals like Ford Motors garner profits that exceed Denmark’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product). Where is the difference? If loads of money makes real differences, how come nearly 200 corporations have control of the world market? How come in 24 nations, 10% of the population command 40% of all income? How come there are millions out there who earn less than USD1 a day? How come the Indonesian people are paying off nearly 50 billion (last figures I got from watching the video earlier) in debt to IMF when 10 billion is unaccounted for and the rest most wently to Suharto’s cronies and relatives? How many of us, rich (or at least people who can afford to splurge once in a while) ever gave a damn about our own peers who have to wallow in poverty just so we can wear the branded shirts on our back?

Perhaps it is just me. Perhaps only people like me feel the sting. Pehaps only people like me would cry for those whose tears have stopped flowing because others just do not give a fucking damn.

Sometimes, I wish I was right in front of the IMF and WTO and UN…just so I can screw some fucking sense into their heads. Better still, I wish I was a genie of some sorts and put those fucking bigwips in the shoes of Indian farmers, Indonesian sweatshop workers so that they can feel what it is like to be like slaves.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights prohibits slavery in countries of the members of the United Nations. It is said by some that slavery has ceased to exist.

Actually, it still does. Slavery exists in the millions of forced labourers and workers - forced to work in horrid living conditions that are only fit for animals (like our chickens and pigs), forced to receive starvation wage (like wage that come in cents - do not laugh…there are people out there who earn only 1 fucking percent of YOUR wage), forced to live in poverty - why? So that a multinational company and rich people can continue reeping profits and sustaining their uber rich lifestyles.

And you know what?

They don’t even realize that this form of profit and lifestyle is stained with blood.

Suddenly, I am disgusted at humanity. If aliens were to exist and decide to take over this Earth, I will be the first to ask them to wipe us all bloody out because frankly, we are not worth saving.

Heh.