White House's Mom In Chief

I marvel at Mrs. Obama, as much as I admire her hubby - not on the ticket of classic, stylish yet affordable wardrobe she wears or because she's the First Lady to the US of America - the most powerful nation in this world (as for now, perhaps, as China may clinche the coveted title in few years down the road).

I am more drawn towards the beautiful human side of hers and what she has brought to the White House as she is now its Mom in Chief.

Here are a few snippets from The TIME's "The Meaning of Michelle Obama" that makes me wishing for more First Ladies like her: -

"The White House became as much Michelle Obama's stage as her husband's even before she colored the fountains green for St. Patrick's Day, or mixed the Truman china with the World's Fair glasses at a state dinner, or installed beehives on the South Lawn, or turned the East Room into a jazz lounge for a night or sacrificed her first sock to the First Puppy. Of all the revelations of her first 100 days, the most striking was that she made it seem natural. She did not spend decades dreaming of this destination, and maybe that's the secret. "I'm not supposed to be here," she says again and again. And ever since she arrived, she has been asking, "What are the things that we can do differently here, the things that have never been done, the people who've never seen or experienced this White House?"

"She's always shown a shrewd eye for the strategic detour, suspending her career in favor of helping her husband get elected, then getting her daughters settled and her garden planted and, in the process, disarming the critics who cast her as a black radical in a designer dress. She will say she's just doing what comes naturally. But whether by accident or design, or a little of both, she has arrived at a place where her very power is magnified by her apparent lack of interest in it"

"She is expected to represent an ideal — and largely mythical — concept of American womanhood"

"The question now is what she plans to do with all this attention. We ask the usual questions of any new First Lady: What is she really like? How does she see her role? But it is only of Michelle Obama that we ask, What does she mean? Few First Ladies have embedded themselves so quickly in the world's imagination. And none have traveled so far, not just from Chicago's South Side to the East Wing, but from the caricatured Angry Black Woman of last spring to her exalted status as a New American Icon, as if her arrival will magically reverse eight years of anti-American spitballing, elevate the black middle class, promote family values, give voice to the voiceless and inspire us all to live healthier, more generous lives"

I wish i could get jealous with her but a lady as nice as her, who needs enemy right? She is at the best position in this confused world - to impart her ideals of being a woman, a wife, a mother and a citizen.

And to spoil my "Take It Easy Monday', i chanced upon this joke here.

Well, with the chunk of bling bling to match designer wardrobe (dari hujung rambut sampai ke hujung kaki), getting plump (Yes, I am being extremely polite here) and smiley, chaffeured-driven (and not forgetting the free riders at my disposal), I would definitely enjoy myself doing my works (err, kerja apa ek? Jalan2, makan2 tu kerja ke? Anybody that has this kind of job to offer, please email me ok?;)

Ouch, macam langit dengan bumi, kan?

Vanilla's Health Benefits, not Just Bon Appetit

My favourite spice, Vanilla, is an essential ingredient widely used in both commercial and domestic baking, perfume manufacture and aroma therapy for which there is no true substitute. The flavour of real vanilla is made up of over 250 organic components, which gives it great depth and complexity, compared to only one flavor component in artificial vanilla.

The Myth on its Origin

The first to cultivate vanilla were the Totonac people, who inhabited the Mazantla Valley on the Gulf Coast of Mexico in the present-day state of Veracruz. According to Totonac mythology, the tropical vanilla orchid was born when Princess Xanat, forbidden by her father from marrying a mortal, fled to the forest with her lover. The lovers were captured and beheaded. Where their blood touched the ground, the vine of the tropical orchid grew.

Its Major Producers

The majority of the world's vanilla that is produced is the Vanilla Planifolia variety, more commonly known as "Madagascar-Bourbon" vanilla, which is produced in a small region of the East African nation of Madagascar and in Indonesia.

Expensive Spice

Vanilla is the second most expensive spice after saffron due the extensive labor required to grow the seed pods used in its manufacture. Despite the expense, it is highly valued for its flavour, which author Frederic Rosengarten, Jr. described in The Book of Spices as "pure, spicy, and delicate" and its complex floral aroma depicted as a "peculiar bouquet.

For me, the aroma of vanilla is simply, heavenly innocent, that reminds me of sweet memories of my childhood. It smells like happiness, it makes you one too.

While it is always associated as one of potent aphrodisiacs (OMG, have i been misled), vanilla has more than just benefits to our gastronomy, you must read the following article from "Organic Facts - Your Gateway to Unbiased Information" to see how we can benefit from vanilla on our health front: -

1. Anti Oxidant: This property alone can take care of most of your problems. I do not know whether you are aware of it or not, but oxidation is one of the biggest causes behind most of our troubles and diseases. It is directly and indirectly responsible for a number of diseases caused by organic malfunctions and infections. Oxidizers or free-radicals cause oxidation of the living cells and tissues and burn them to death. Gradually, this result in weakening of the immunity, loss of memory, organic and nervous malfunctioning, gradual loss of vision & hearing, mental instability, macular degeneration etc. and the body becomes prone to diseases. The anti oxidant property of Vanilla Essential Oil neutralizes these free radicals and protects the body from wears and tears, infections and even some forms of cancer, such as those of prostrate, colon etc. It also repairs the damages already done to the body.

2. Aphrodisiac: A systematic administration of Vanilla Essential Oil to the patients of impotency, erectile dysfunction, frigidity, loss of libido etc. can relieve them of their problems, and it is well proven. This oil stimulates secretion of certain hormones like testosterone, estrogen etc. which help bring about normal sexual behavior and promotes arousal.

3. Anti Carcinogenic: To some extent, the anti carcinogenic property of Vanilla Oil comes from its anti oxidant properties. The free radicals or oxidants do not only damage tissues, but can also cause certain type of cancers, such as those in prostrate, colon etc. Certain components Essential Oil of Vanilla checks growth of cancerous cells, thereby helping cure cancer.

4. Febrifuge: The vanilla oil can effectively reduce fever by fighting infections due to presence of components like Eugenol and Vanillin Hydroxybenzaldehyde in it. Being a sedative, it also reduces inflammation due to fever (Anti Phlogistic would be the right word for it) and this also contributes to reducing fever.

5. Anti Depressant: You were sitting alone, depressed. Then somebody brings you a vanilla ice cream or a vanilla flavored drink, you have that and lo! The depression is gone! You start feeling pleased, satisfied and get into mood. This is one of the biggest advantages of vanilla aroma (better if it is real vanilla, but synthetic Vanilla or artificially synthesized Vanillin Hydroxybenzaldehyde works good too) that it makes you happy. The flavor alone is so pleasingly sweet and soothing that everybody, ranging from toddlers to centurions, likes it. Vanillin Hydroxybenzaldehyde, a component of Vanilla Essential Oil, is an effective anti depressant and mood up-lifter.

6. Sedative: The Essential Oil of Vanilla soothes. It soothes all types of inflammations and hyperactivity in all the systems functioning in our body, namely, the respiratory system, circulatory system, digestive system, nervous system and the excretory system. It sedates inflammation due to fever, convulsions, anxiety, stress, hypersensitivity of allergy etc.

7. Tranquilizing: Vanilla Essential Oil helps you get a sound sleep too. This is due to the sedative and relaxing properties of this oil. It lowers blood pressure and has a sort of tranquilizing effect on the brain too, and you cannot keep you eyelids open anymore. All you see then is your bed and pillows.

8. Relaxing: This oil has a relaxing and calming effect on the brain and the nerves and gives relief from anxiety, anger, restlessness etc.

9. Other Benefits: It helps regularize menstruations (although not exactly an emenagogue) by activating certain hormones like estrogen.

A Wink and A Smile

This weekend will be songs from Lenka, Harry Connick Jr. and "You've got Mail" soundtrack - to douse off Eminem's opening for my playlist.

You've been warned - they could be sickeningly sweet and romantic.

Have a pleasant weekend, my dear...

We Made Them

Listening to Eminem's latest song "We Made You", I can't help but thinking.

We, the people of this nation, are guilty - We Made Them.

Guilty for turning them, the people we trusted our lives and money with, our freedom and security, our sanity and sanitary, into power and money hungry monsters.

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power" - Abraham Lincoln

Of course, via our votes that sent the monstrous elected representatives to the August House, which then hire senseless, heartless people to helm our scared institutions, who play their games to fill their coffers to the brim.

For that we are guilty for those who have to suffer for injustice, lack of conscience and compassion.

For those who had to lose their lives just to prove the truth, to stand for our rights, to fight for our freedom and remain as one.

Could we unmade them? Maybe, if we couldn't join them, let's beat them?

"Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful and whatever is powerful may be just" - Blaise Pascal

No Violence Against Women, Please?

I was fuming coming to work this morning - not my Selangor Omnibus, the driver got a new bus, i can't help but peeping every now and then to see him smiling on my way to work since monday.

This morning, while i was tripping happily to my office, I heard a Fix-It over FlyFM's Pagi Show, where they helped to fix 'Josephine's' problem with her colleague at work. Working in ads company, her XY-chromosome colleague told her to 'stay away' from their sport company deal. I bet she had enough being pushed away, she got Phatt Fabes and Ben to call the colleague. This MCP (ops, i know it's too harsh for a sweet lady like me ... hehehhe.. don't puke on me ok?:) told the deejays that he didn't want her to work in this project but she is a girly type of gal, therefore, she doesn't know much about sports. After saying that and much more degrading remarks on national radio, the deejays put Josephine on and the former asked her what she wants that MCP to do. She wanted him to apologise and the MCP said this "Apologise for you being dumb?". Boys was i mad, really i could punch his face blue black.

I've seen this kind of mental abuse happening before and I cannot believe my ears that there are (STILL) many more MCPs out there. The MCPs will look for women when there is a messy problem and ditch them when they find a certain project so interesting to them. There are also instances when married women are being 'sidelined' in promotion at works - reasons for getting pregnant. Is this how you guys treat the women, who share the same type of choromosomes like your beloved mother? Hmm..so much about material civilisation, some men are still stucked in the ancient stone-age era.

Since i've started nagging about how some people treated women badly, simply for being women, i must give my 2-cents on the indo-french teen model, who fled The Little Red Dot, back into the arms of her loving family, with the assistance of many unsung heroes. While she has appeared every cheerful talking to the press about her ordeals, sadly inconsistently perhaps due to her euphoria coming back home safely, I would appreciate you reserve your comments like "Aah, just another gold digger/spoilt brad who cannot have her freedom in Kelantan/another cheap attention seeker", let us not forget and raise BIG doubts on why her mother was not allowed to enter Malaysia (Dulu one Mongolian lady and her cousins, now Mano's mommy too? Our Immigation Dept is definitely so 'powerfool' huh?), why she needed to run away while in civilised The Little Red Dot (Integrity, Service, Excellence for SPF, Tegas, Adil, Berhemah for our police, which one would you trust your life with? Go figure), just to name a few.

When Women's Centre of Change, based in PG, wrote to the MSM that "Violence is not a personal issue", some MCPs commented that in Islam, a wife - her body, mind and soul - belongs to her husband that she must obey him at all time. Oh yes, i 100% behind that bliss but does the husband carry out his responsibilities in accordance to the Islamic tenets?

"Woman was taken out of man; not out of his head to top him, nor out of his feet to be trampled underfoot; but out of his side to be equal to him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be loved”

Then, one of the new kitchen cabinet said that he cannot initiate any actions until a report is lodged. Ok, just like how our police f(a)rce told the abused women when they came over to the station to make a report on their evil MCP husbands. "Maaf puan, ini masalah rumahtangga, kami tak boleh campur" or "Saya cadangkan puan supaya pandai mengambil hati suami puan supaya dia tak pukul puan lagi". Shooot... I tell you (quite a few times already, if you read my blog ;) this nation needs to be run by women for someone to take reactive (shisshhhh not even pro-active) steps to address this issue, which seems to penetrate the personal life of both commoner and royal, alikes.

I shall leave you, hopefully not fuming hot for my harsh, harsh words and thoughts on MCPs that ran amok (because my readers are angels ;), with these quotes from MPs in My Mr. Barack Obama's land. Maybe we could enlighten ourselves that violence against women has lasting impacts on our family institution, our nation and this world, which could be much better a place for our souls.

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"It is difficult to get Latina and Asian women to speak out. We must make it clear it's not their problem, it's our problem. We need magazines like this one to keep talking about the issue. And know that we women in Congress are with you 100 percent." - Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald, California

"In rural areas of America, there is a growing increase in poverty, homelessness and hunger. You cannot separate these factors from domestic violence ‑- a mother with three kids and no financial security is going to stiffen her lip and take the abuse, because not only does she have nowhere else to go, she has three children depending on her for survival." - Sen. Blanche Lincoln, Arkansas

"It's not enough for women to speak out on the issue ‑- for the message to be strong and consistent, women's voices must be backed up by men's." - Rep. John Conyers, Jr., Michigan

"When you're in a broken family and your role model is a violent male, boys grow up believing that's the way they're supposed to act. And girls think that's an accepted way men will treat them." - Rep. Jim Costa, California

"To help break the cycle of domestic violence, we must allow survivors to take time off from work without fear of losing their job, to go to court, to see a doctor or to find a safe place to live." - Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, California

"Growing up in a small Alaska town, domestic violence was that dirty little secret nobody talked about. We must start talking about it. For too long, we have been providing protection to the wrong people." - Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Alaska

"I grew up with an extremely abusive father. As a mother, I wanted to protect my own children from exposure to violence. When I found out one of my daughters was in an abusive relationship, it broke my heart. Finally, she left him ‑- but only after his abuse started spreading to the children." - Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, Florida

"A friend of mine was married to an assistant church pastor who regularly beat her up. He was smart ‑- he'd do it in a way that the bruises didn't show. For the longest time, she dealt with it. Who would believe the minister was a wife beater?! Meanwhile, my friend ‑- an attorney! ‑- suffered in silence." - Rep. Carolyn Maloney, New York

"The key thing is to ensure that we give the criminal-justice system the tools it needs, so that women's rights are turned into reality. It is not enough to say domestic violence is a crime ‑- in order for the laws to be successful, lawyers and courts must have the necessary means to prosecute it." - Sen. Jon Kyl, Arizona

"The biggest challenge is to convince a woman that it's not her fault. My daughter is 25; my stepdaughter is 22. As a mother, I want them to know that if a boyfriend is abusive, you cannot ignore it ‑- 'Oh, he's been drinking,' or 'He had a bad day.' There is no excuse for a man hitting a woman. Ever." - Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Michigan

p.s. Do you think we are going to hear these kind of statements from our Gomen? Dream on.. well, we can change what need to be changed. Don't you think? ;)

What a Difference our Differences Make?

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,

but by the moments that take our breath away"

This article from AFP was emailed to me this morning and it is so beautiful that it would be a great disappointment not to share it here with you. Please spare your compassion reading it and hopefully, it will make a difference in our life, boleh tak?

p.s. Plus, this week is my writer-bloc week (I need to check if it is another scheduled maintenance works:)

NAIROBI (AFP) - A baby hippopotamus that survived the tsunami waves on the Kenyan coast has formed a strong bond with a giant male century-old tortoise in an animal facility in the port city of Mombassa, officials said.

The hippopotamus, nicknamed Owen and weighing about 300 kilograms (650 pounds), was swept down Sabaki River into the Indian Ocean , then forced back to shore when tsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on December 26, before wildlife rangers rescued him.

"It is incredible. A-less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to be very happy with being a 'mother'", ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge of Lafarge Park , told AFP .

"After it was swept away and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized. It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond. They swim, eat and sleep together," the ecologist added.
"The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it followed its mother. If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes aggressive, as if protecting its biological mother," Kahumbu added.

"The hippo is a young baby, he was left at a very tender age and by nature, hippos are social animals that like to stay with their mothers for four years,' he explained. 'Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away".

This is a real story that shows that our differences don't matter much when we need the comfort of another. We could all learn a lesson from these two creatures of God, "Look beyond the differences and find a way to walk the path together".

Searching for our Generation "M"

I came across this article “Get to Know Generation O” in Newsweek today.

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“A year ago, Michelle Kremer couldn't have imagined voting for a Democrat, much less phone-banking for one. The 19-year-old Cornell sophomore was raised by parents on both sides of the political divide, but chose to register as a Republican in May 2007, as soon as she turned 18.

But by September 2008, disappointed by Republican nominee John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate, she found herself looking for inspiration away from the party she'd always known. She cautiously began researching then–Democratic nominee Barack Obama, and, impressed by his thoughtful foreign policy and practical economic plans, decided to change her vote.

Soon, Kremer was spending her nights and weekends volunteering for Obama's campaign; now, she's a writer for Generation O, a new NEWSWEEK blog that seeks to chronicle the lives of a group of young Obama supporters.

Stranger things have happened. Still, Kremer, who now considers herself a political moderate, sees her personal transition as part of an emerging trend. Her politically active peers no longer identify themselves by "party first," she says. Instead, she explains, "we're identifying as Americans first."

In the months since Barack Obama was elected president, that refrain has been repeated by politicians and pundits alike, and to a subsection of voters, it rings surprisingly true. Young people ages 18 to 29 rallied around a 47-year-old first-term Senator last fall not only because of his ideas, but also for the generational change he ushered in. Their age cohort is often referred to as the "millennials," but a more apt term might be "Generation O"—short for Obama.

A new study from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University shows that today's youth vote in larger numbers than previous generations, and a 2008 study from the Center for American Progress adds that increasing numbers of young voters and activists support traditionally liberal causes. But there's no easy way to see what those figures mean in real life.

During the campaign, Obama assembled a racially and ideologically diverse coalition with his message of hope and change; as the reality of life under a new administration settles in, some of those supporters might become disillusioned. As the nation moves further into the Obama presidency, will politically engaged young people continue to support the president and his agenda, or will they gradually drift away?

The writers of Generation O want to answer that question. For the next three months, Kremer and 11 other Obama supporters, ages 19 to 34, will blog about life across mainstream America, with one twist: by tying all of their ideas and experiences to the new president and his administration, the bloggers will try to start a conversation about what it means to be young and politically active in America today.

Malena Amusa, a 24-year-old writer and dancer from St. Louis sees the project as a way to preserve history as it happens. Amusa, who is traveling to India this spring to finish a book, then to Senegal to teach English, has ongoing conversations with her friends about how the Obama presidency has changed their daily lives and hopes to put some of those ideas, along with her global perspective, into her posts. She's excited because, as she puts it, "I don't have to wait [until] 15 years from now" to make sense of the world.

Not all of the bloggers have come as far as Kremer, or plan to travel as far as Amusa. Some were initially skeptical about Obama, and others worked for months on his campaign, but for the most part they are ordinary students and professionals living in communities across the United States. To stay in touch, they rely on the same tools as their peers: e-mail, Facebook and Twitter.

Generation O is meant to be its own online community; the primary site is hosted on Tumblr, a blog platform that emphasizes video and multimedia posts and encourages users to discuss interesting content by "reblogging" other users' posts. Eugene Resnick, a Generation O contributor and a student at the University of Virginia, says he's seen people "more engaged in their communities" since the election and thinks that surge in local engagement could translate into enthusiasm for a new community as well.

Henry Flores, a political-science professor at St. Mary's University, credits this younger generation's political strength to their embrace of technology. "[The Internet] exposes them to more thinking," he says, "and groups that are like-minded in different parts of the country start to come together."

That's exactly what the Generation O bloggers are hoping to do. The result could be a group of young people that, like their boomer parents, grows up with a strong sense of purpose and sheds the image of apathy they've inherited from Generation X. It's no small challenge for a blog run by a group of ordinary—if ambitious—young people, but the members of Generation O are up to the task".

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This article says it all about the importance of the nation's youth development, as once said by Mr. President Franklin D. Roosevelt that "We cannot build the future for our youth, but we can build the youth for the future". Again, this is just another of many great things i admire about Mr. Barack Obama - to inspire his youths - unlike our Gomen that come up with mentally-stunted policies for our young generations like AUKU.

p.s. I thought he could only do wonders with grannies and aunties, falling head over heel for him :)

Coincidently, it was reported yesterday that USM was taken to task for an administrative blunder, which gave false hopes to thousands of applicants who assumed they had gained admission to the country’s apex university, here. I cannot imagine how painful it is for the student and the family - their hopes for the brighter future dashed in a matter of one day.

In this country, hopes are shattered every day out of idiotic, short-sighted policies and blunders - i wonder how we survive all these while. "Youth is a wonderful thing that we should never waste it on children", said Mr. George Bernard Shaw.

Let's give hopes to our youths and reach our hands to guide them through with ideals of the their time for “Wise men appreciate all men for they see the good in each and how hard it is to make anything good” (Baltasar Gracian).

Let's search for our Generation "M" - Generation Anak Bangsa Malaysia.