When your wife decides to take up driving, don’t stand in her way – one of five wisecracks DJ Hamish Brown quoted on the radio this morning.

 Faith in God is a matter of the heart – a very personal and private relationship with the Almighty.  In other words, it is nobody else’s business. 

Simple enough as it sounds, men have always gotten it wrong. 

The Pharisees two thousand years ago for example, made public shows of their prayers.  They also found ways to make their acts of kindness known. 

And these days, it takes a court to endorse anyone’s decision to turn from faith.  In a landmark decision that many cheer, Malaysia’s Syariah Court has allowed a Muslim woman to renounce her faith and return to her Buddhism roots.

 Malaysia’s electorate handed the Barisan Nasional (BN) 140 seats in the March 2008 election.  The remaining 82 seats went to an alliance of opposition parties known as Pakatan Rakyat. 

63% dominance in the parliament is an enviable result for any ruling party, except that the BN had always enjoyed 2/3 majority since Malaysia’s independence in 1957. 

It doesn’t help that de facto opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, a former Deputy PM, is enticing BN MPs to switch sides.  All he needs is for 30 to cross over, and he topples the government.  At the moment, the scenario looks very possible. 

But is it be fair for an elected MP to defect?  Many voters cast their ballots for the party they support, not for the candidate himself.  They mark their tick against the party symbol, not the candidate’s name. 

Defecting then, would constitute an act of betrayal against such voters. 

 This morning, I struck a conversation with a guy from Burma who had helped me paint an office space some weeks ago.   

His family is in Yangon which sat smack in Nargis’ path.  Thankfully, he has managed to contact them, and they are fine.  It seems communications has mostly been restored to the city. 

Reaching elsewhere, however, is the challenge.  The select few authorised relief agencies, World Vision to name one, are finding it difficult to send volunteers and supplies into devastated areas.  Infrastructure constraints, compounded with Nargis’ immediate impact, could make the damage worse than what the 2004 tsunami did. 

So it amazes me that while the citizens are busy surviving the ordeal and rebuilding their lives, Myanmar’s military government is busy pushing to go ahead with the constitutional referendum on 10 May.  In US First Lady Laura Bush’s words, “… it would be very, very odd, I think, if they went ahead and held a referendum this Saturday..”.

 As I listened to “We are The World” on the radio recently,  I couldn’t help but pay attention to the part that goes  “… as God has shown us by turning stones to bread….” 

Jesus performed many miracles when he walked on earth, including turning water to wine at a wedding (John 2), and turning 5 loaves and 2 small fish into enough food to feed five thousand (John 6), but he did not turn stones to bread.  

What happened at the end of his 40-day fast in a desert was this:  Satan had tempted Jesus to fulfill his physical hunger by turning stones to bread.  Jesus’ response was that “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”  (Matthew 4).

By the way, that says a lot about the race many of us spend too much time in. There have to be more we can offer in life than putting food on the table.

 Sony placed a full paged ad in Singapore’ Straits Times today, announcing the HDR-TG1E Full HD Handycam. 

Fitting snugly into the pocket is indeed an attractive feature for people like me who strive to leave the house hands free.  What I am not sure about is the wisdom of carrying it in the hip pocket like the way Sony suggests in the ad. 

Pure Titanium body or not, the gadget is not going to like it when you sit. 

Case in point: My Coolpix quitted on me in the middle of my recent holiday.  The lens mechanism failed - there was a slight dent at a corner of the camera to explain why.  The repair would cost almost as much as buying a new piece, albeit of a lesser brand. 

The thing is, I have no recollection whatsoever on the occasion when I could have made that dent. 

I still appreciate handy slim gadgets.  But believe me, you will have to forgo care free for hands free when using them.

 “You look familiar.  Were you my classmate?” 

In the ad for a beauty product, Fann Wong’s response to that pick up line was “I was your teacher.” 

Now for real, 19-year-old Alia Sabur will say the same – professor, in fact, to be exact.  She is slated to join Seoul’s Konkuk University as professor next month. 

That will make her the world’s youngest professor.  The Guinness Book of Records matches her feat to the record set by Colin Maclaurin, a 19-year-old student of Isaac Newton, almost three centuries ago. 

Apart from academic excellence, she is a taekwondo black belt and a concert-level clarinetist.  She speaks several languages, including math and music.

Very significantly, she acknowledges the blessings as a gift from God.

 Of all the May Day rallies around the world, the one in Kolkata must have raised the most eye brows. 

It was attended by thousands of prostitutes demanding labour law coverage. 

They decry the government’s violation of human rights – I think they really mean their rights to trade.  Constant harassment by the police affects the clientele base they worked so hard to build. 

It is strange.  Theirs is the world’s oldest profession.  If at all any occupation benefit or protection could be structured for them, shouldn’t these already be well in place by now?

 Hang on there, because

The important thing in life is not the triumph, but the struggle - quote Pierre de Coubertin