DVD MACHINE - THE REAL DEAL...



07 April 2005
By Jeanmarie Tan
NOWADAYS, renting a DVD is as easy and convenient as drawing cash from an ATM.
And the trend is slowly but surely catching on.
Just ask the people behind Play! Entertainment, the company which created a 24-hour automated DVD rental kiosk (left), which acts like a vending machine and uses biometric thumbprint recognition to verify customers.
According to Ms Gina Tan, Play!'s marketing and operations director, the public response has been 'favourable', with queues forming at their machines even at 1am. Play! has secured more than 7,000 members within six months of operation, and are expanding further into the heartlands, which is their target market.
In addition to its eye-catching chilli-red kiosks at Northpoint, West Mall, Caltex House and Parkway Parade, four new ones will be located at Sengkang MRT station, Tiong Bahru Plaza, Jurong Point and tentatively around the Woodlands area, starting this month.
An individual kiosk holds more than 200 titles (including a wide selection of Bollywood titles) and the newest releases.
Each rental costs only $4.50 for the first 24 hours and five cents for each additional hour on late return (cheaper than traditional rental chains), and members enjoy special promotions and freebies. - Electric New Paper

This article leaves one thinking that the DVD machine is a wonderful convenience for our very busy lifestyles. It is almost even like an advertisement. There is such a machine, near where I stay and I registered as an user. Now I have to pay a $50 fine and I get to keep the overdue DVD I had borrowed a month ago. See thing is, a DVD costs less than 1/2 that price. And besides I watched that DVD all of but one time.Being a student and all, one tends to be busy with many activities.So you know, like in DVD rental shops where you can get someone else to return the DVD for you on your behalf, I passed the DVD to a friend. Alas, the machine, being what it is, an inhumane, inflexible and rigid mechanism, only allows one to access my account with my own thumbprint. At first, I did think, this was an interesting prospect, but I have come to realise that it is an hinderance at times to prompt returning.I did call the management trying to explain my predicament, the lady on the other end, sweet as her voice was, stated plainly that everyone I ask to help me return my DVD is expected to know my account number by heart, since they cant possibly have my thumbprint with them as well.

Firstly, there was no obvious and blatant instruction to customers about this arrangement; it is hard for one to know that it is indeed possible to access another's account without that particular someone's thumbprint.

Secondly, my account number also happens to be my NRIC number, perhaps due to the management's consideration for the customer's convenience. Only, why in the world, would one want to publicise something as important and personal as an NRIC number? Besides, wouldnt it be an hassle to remember someone else's NRIC?Perhaps the management could look into this aspect of their machine? I hope constructive feedback would enhance their service.

The DVD machine charges $4.50 per DVD, regardless of how many DVDS you borrow. The shops charge only $4, sometimes less.You get more than one from a shop, you may very likely be entitled to a discount. In the shops, when you borrow more than one, you are entitled to keep the DVDs for more than one day. I am not sure if that is the case for this machine rental service.Finally and most importantly, if you were to borrow the DVD from a shop, and you were late, there is room for negotiation and perhaps, the kind owner might even decide not to fine you since you are a regular customer. The machine however favours no man.

In the National Library, any fines above $25 will not be charged, meaning you just pay $25 and keep the book, which probably could cost way more than $25. Well thats what the librarian told me anyway. What will you make out of charging $50 for a DVD which the customer is fully willing to return! Besides if that particular DVD would even have been rented out even if I had returned it on time, is questionable. Therefore, there is a high possibility that the management might have made no money whatsoever with that DVD even if it was returned.Now they make their claim to $50.

So basically, this machine in my opinion is really overated and the only plus point is that you could leave your house at midnight and decide to borrow a DVD when the shops are closed.But I wouldn recommend it if you were the sort with important things to do other than make your way religiously to the DVD machine to return that DVD.

With all that said, I will probably pay the $50, since I registered as an user, meaning I implicitly agreed to their terms and conditions.

Music soothes the soul..

We all can do with music. Some of us cannot do without music. Music intensifies moods and gives birth to inspiration and renewed vigour. How about angry music, like in the case of raps and heavy metal? What purpose do these serve? I believe these also perpetuate moods, in this case negative moods. When you are angry, would you rather listen to angry music to perpertuate your anger, like a form of release perhaps? When you are a little angry about something really quite insignificant in the light of your entire lifetime and life yet to be lived; and listen to angry music, what happens is that your anger would likely escalate into something destructive. What is actually insignificant might seem very significant and that might be enough for some of us to make desisions we are known to regret later. Regreting later has little use, since the action has already been committed. The guy who almost got hanged for killing his wife, did what he did in a moment of what his lawyer described as morbid jeolousy. Morbid jeolousy or just a moment of raving madness, a crime would not go unpunished. This man too, though having escaped the hangman's noose, is serving time for a long long time to pay for what he did.

Some people even commit suicide or flirt with suicidal thoughts due to having indulged in sad songs for a long time. Love failures for instance, listen to sad forlorn love songs and feel sorry for themselves. Do these sad songs make anything better? No, on the contrary they perpertuate one's sorrow.So is music no good, in helping us seek reprieve of sorts? No, music is good and helpful in elevating moods as well.

I recommend listening to music that induces an emotion contrary to what negative emotion you may be feeling. Like if you are sad, listen to a happy song, get uplifted and move on with life. If you are angry too, listen to a soothing song and calm your temper, lest you commit something stupid in that anger. In this way, music helps you to regulate your negative emotions and puts you back on track. Some would say, this would be deluding oneself, and that such songs are contrary to the actual miserable reality. That is not true. We do not know enough to know that reality is essentially bad. Reality might actually be better than we think. It is all a matter of perspective really. The truth will set us free, and the truth is not essentially bitter.

Life is good, enjoy life, be happy and carefree, not sad or angry. Lets live life to the fullest, and not let anything get us down. In the event that we are down, there is always the music, that soothes the soul.

Why You'd Rather be the Bad Guy..

The age old adage; " Good guys finish last" aside, there are many other reasons why it is better to be the bad guy.For one, bad guys are well loved.Take Adolf Hitler for instance, dictator or not, this man was revered by millions. Yes Adolf Hitler was adored. And so was, Joseph Stalin and Fidel Castro. The Tshirts printed with Castro's visage on them are testimony to this man's popularity. We also have Tshirts with Nazi Swasticas.Even Eminem is adored by millions of women even when he raps publicly about his disdain for them.The cool guys are always referred to as the bad boys. Elvis Presley, Kid Rock, Christian Slater, not to mention Charlie Sheen, which woman didn like Charlie Sheen? I follow a television series called 'Prison Break' and my favourite character in it, is this convict by the name of T-Bag. T-Bag also happens to be the favourite of many other people, girls even, though his crimes include serial raping.We all loved Brad Pitt in Fight Club. Enough said. Bad boys are loved.

In Pirates of the Carribean, Johnny Depp, ( Jack Sparrow) said this; " You can always trust me because I am known to be dishonest. You can always count on me to be dishonest. It is the honest ones you have to watch out for, you never know it when they are lying." I could not agree less. Likewise, the good guys are expected to be good all the time.One wrong move, one moment of weakness, and their whole world comes crashing down. Everyone around them points an accusing finger. These are the guys we hold in 'God' status. They are not allowed the liberty of slipping even once.Like they say, it is easy to be bad, but it is extremely difficult to be good, because one wrong doing is enough to discount the entire lifetime of decent and good behaviour. It is like, in a big piece of white handkerchief, we do not fuss about how white the handkerchief may be, we do however fuss incessantly about the one small black dot on the otherwise white handkerchief.It is never enough, if you want to be good, do one good and everyone around you will expect more. Society has very high standards. Even if one consistently does good, society most of the time will not only fail to celebrate the consistency,it will also start looking for gifts in the horses mouth, it will start speaking of the good which one could still do or do better but is not yet doing. Is it not easier to give up keeping up appearances and just do as one pleases, with scant regard for a society seated high on its moral horses?

The bad guys though have it a lot easier. They do as they please and everyone excuses their behaviour in a " oh boys will be boys" manner, perhaps because, the apparent and blatant weakness in a bad guy is somewhat identified with within everyone's own conscience.In a Tamil movie, Rajnikanth once said, " God will give alot of good things to the bad guy in his lifetime, and the same God would test relentlessly the good guy in his lifetime. But when the lifetime is about to end, God would forsake the bad guy and save the good guy." I think to myself, " what is the point of living a miserable life just because you are inherently good, is it not better to be bad and gain everything in this life, in wonderful enjoyment? After all we do but live once." God aside, we should not speak of what God would or wouldn do, because as mere men, we are unable to comprehend him. With that said, I do not agree with what Rajnikanth said, and I do not wish to discuss God.Not here at least.

In the movies, even when the bad guy gets defeated finally at the climax, he does not feel sad, he feels shocked and angry. We see though, the good guy going through emotional pain and sorrow at many points. Is all the emotional burden and torture worth it? Sorrow and pain are very difficult emotions to bear, especially when one has done nothing but be good.Speaking of bad guys and movie climaxes, many a time we do see the bad guy turn good guy towards the ending and we cannot help but feel grateful to the bad guy for assisting the lead in the fight against evil.In the cases when the movie ends with the bad guy realising his mistake, we leave the movie feeling good that the good guy and bad guy shook hands or embraced in a moment of goodwill.And in that one moment, we forget all the bad deeds that bad guy had done throughout the movie; just as one wrong move is enough to blow the reputation of the good guy, one good deed, one moment of realisation by the bad guy is all it takes to redeem him of his reputation.

Somehow, we all have an inherent belief that all men are good to some extent. And when we see a bad guy, we try very hard to scrutine his behaviour, to justify his actions and desperately hope to find the 'good' hidden somewhere in the bad guy. Likewise, we also have an inherent belief that no one man can be all good. So we also try very hard, to scrutinise a good guy and find fault lest we be proven wrong about our theory. The good guy, is left to do good on his own, without support or understanding. After all the good guy, does good because, he unlike the bad guy, apparently, has no weaknesses. At least, most of us choose to be blind to them.

My mother did not give birth to a fool. I have one life, and I have no wish to be persecuted for wanting to do good. I want to enjoy my life and have people fussing over my seemingly irrational behaviour. Which is why, I, would rather be the bad guy; wouldn you?

Editor's Note

The story below was written for Danial, (not his real name), an 18 year old who has found himself as a pawn in a game of gangland violence.He shared his plight with me and asked me what he should do and what was the worst that could happen if he complied with the wishes he was subject to.To him, he didn want to be known as a coward or as one who cannot be counted upon in a crisis.I wrote the narrative below, to give him an idea of what he might go through if he decided to carry on with whatever it was he was doing. The details in the story somewhat reflect the events in his life and how he even got to this state in the first place. I hope that it helps us to realise the weight of our actions, even those we take out of self-pity or anger towards the world.

The Second Chance- Dont'!..You will live to regret it....

His heart was pounding and even the pounding was drowned by the voices blaring in his mind. He didn know, he felt like he was drowning and running away from invisible captors at the same time.The feeling of utter regret was too much to bear. At that very moment in time, he felt very much like a fool, to have followed the instigation of those very voices which betrayed him now.Everything was crystal clear now, suddenly, when it was seemingly too late. The act had already been done. It could all very well be over for him.
He did have a family; he could have salvaged the bond that had deteriorated over the years; if only, if only he had given in and not let his temper get the better of him.There were those who didn have much to look forward to in terms of an education or career prospect, he wasnt one of them.He happened to be one of the more promising ones in school, till the fustration from the outside got to him. Even then, it hadn been too late. There were many viable options. The route back on track was far from illusive. Still, the voices had lied and lied persuasively.He was convinced that he was nobody's child; that no one cared.No, they did care; now that he had blown it, if they knew, the thoughts of the sheer agony his family would go through, the embarrasment, his well wishers from afar; their dissapointment; the utter shock his friends would be dealt with;they would never have guessed him as such; it was all too overwhelming.Friends were aplenty; they were never too far; it was him, he felt too ashamed to see them the way he was, ashamed of the way he was feeling and what he was going through.For each of the outward bond he lost, he cultivated one on the inside with them; the voices that seemed to know; his pain, his woes. Why must life be that hard for him alone, many nights he pondered. Bewildered by the seeming emptiness that seemed to greet his pondering, he started entertaining the lies; that he just wasnt meant to have the life they all seemed to have.The voices were right. He just didn deserve what he was going through; he had never been outrightly unfilial, selfish or evil. He wasnt even lacking in his appearance; he just didn understand why he could never be like the rest, who managed to get the attention of the girls; he never had any luck with girls; not most of them anyway. They hit him hard; and the scars they left never seemed to heal.It was time, then he decided; he had made his pact with the voices; the promise of satisfaction was to him like ointment over his wounds.

As he neared his destination; he could feel the struggle. The struggle between whatever glimmer of hope of a better tomorrow he had left and the voices which convinced him that hope was nothing but mocking deceit.It was too late now; they told him, he had already made his pact; now he had to see through the plan. Besides, they would never cease to haunt him if he backed out now. They reminded him of the excrucitating pain he was subject to before this; did he really think there was another way out.? Was he really willing to take the chances? No. he decided.There was no way he was going to take a chance like that. He was fully willing, to end the pain; the means to an end hardly mattered at a time like this.

The adrenalin was bursting through his veins; he could feel the trickle of sweat down his face. He glanced around nervously; fully apprehensive yet strangely excited.The coast was clear. He did it; heart in his mouth. At that moment; his survival instincts took over. He was swift and precise. Once done; he moved away quickly and warily. He had barely taken five steps when something inside him died. The voices were back.Strangely enough, his friends of his darkest and deepest became his accusers. They accused him mercilessly and relentlessly. How could he have given in to a moment of folly. He had read about these things a million times. They used to laugh about the folly of these guys. Sometimes he laughed the loudest. He wasnt laughing now. In those few steps, he was encompassed by the wierdest assortment of feelings; great fear, deep regret, dissapointing sorrow, and a need to escape from the face of the earth. And it was then he prayed; he had made HIM so small in his eyes, he begged for forgiveness, all he wanted now was a chance, a second chance; he would work tirelessly, to make all things right. Turn back time, he prayed, erase the events of the last few hours, please, he pleaded.His life then wasnt actually as bad as the voices convinced him it was. He had hope then; he just hadn seen it; but he saw it now. He knew, he knew he could make it all work;he would give anything now for that second chance; only he really had nothing else to give. It had all been squandered away blindly the instant he gave in to his weakness.Despair and gloom overshadowed him. It was too late. It wouldn be too long now, he would face the world, head down in shame.

He felt himself falling. Falling deeper and deeper, into the darkness, it was neverending; his arms were frantically waving,trying to grab hold of something. There was nothing. There was nothing. He landed on a pool of water and finally he saw light. His shelves and walls came into sight. He picked himself up, glad that it was over.He walked away; to drink some water to swallow the knot that had formed in his throat during his ordeal.

He knew then, life wasnt that hard. It was all a matter of the mind.

Warning : Do not engage in self destruction.Life goes on, no matter what happens. Everyday that you are alive and safe, is a day, that might just be your big break. Take it as it comes. Dont push the self-destruct button. You will live to regret it. This post is dedicated to Danial, I hope things get better for you my friend.

New York Nagaram

XX or XY? a mix of both? Neither? - The Sacred Feminine

In my love for everything associated with the species of Homo sapiens endowed with the double X chromosome, I began contemplating the eternal feminine secret. The eternal feminine secret is any girl's most potent defense and offence. It is the reason why many men are left in the wake of destruction raked up by angry women.In tamil, they say, " Aavathum pennal, Azlivathum pennal" which literally means, " Creation is of a woman and destruction is of a woman". In Christianity, the man is the head of the household, but many (me included) believe that the woman, is the neck that turns the head. It is said generally; behind every successful man, there is a woman and also; never fall prey to a woman's grudge or curse for its potency is fatally baffling. There are the scores of clueless guys who are left wondering what exactly their female counterpart expects of them and Hollywood even came up with " What women want" starring Mel Gibson.

It is along these notions that many wonder at the potency of females and in my course of wondering, I came across a conspiracy theory, about how matriarchal paganism was successfully converted to patriarchal Christianity by powerful men down the centuries.Dan Brown even mentions that the sacred feminine has been ousted from the religious scene, by means of bloodshed and propaganda.The Hopi Native Americans call this a world out of balance, with testosterone fuelled wars and a growing disrespect to Mother Earth.

What then is the sacred feminine?It is defined by experts as the Feminine force that births both female and male forms, the circle of Yin and Yang. Known by some as the battle goddess and as bloodthirsty, the sacred feminine is also known as lover and carrier of divine fertility.

Hinduism calls her 'shakti', 'Shakti' means life energy. The Bhagavad Gita says, "Without Shakti, Shiva is nothing." In India, ancient sculptures clearly express the veneration for her and for all women as her living embodiment. Temples were built to honour her; she who carries the sacred art of female sexuality, who can transform though sex. She has been named sacred prostitute, devadasi, temple dancer, hierodule.( fr an online source)

And we have feminists asking why we insist the manhood of God. There have even been movies (banned though) that suggested otherwise. I found all this rather disturbing and I checked the Bible for what it says. I quote John 4:24, "God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.". Therefore, I believe that God essentially transcends gender and should not be conflated with issues of gender. That in my humble opinion, would be demeaning Him to our gender boundaries.

Therefore I believe that the female has her right and place in all levels of society, including religion, but one might over stretch the arguement if one were to propose the theory of the Sacred Feminine and that SHE transcends mankind. I believe just as creation has 2 halves; both the male and the female have an equal part to play in procreation, both also have equal parts in every other aspect of society as well. I suppose the issue of who is to be on top of whom, is a matter of who has the strength for the occasion.If the male is tired in any situation, it would never be wrong for the female to take the top position. Likewise, if the female prefers to relax and enjoy the ride, the male gets to be on top.Isnt it all a matter of who is apt for what and when? Therefore, with all due respect to magnificient Mother Earth, we should worship Father God and co-exist in bliss. As for the eternal feminine secret, well, what is a girl without her secrets?

Official Languages and National Language Act


Official languages and national language
153A. —(1) Malay, Mandarin, Tamil and English shall be the 4 official languages in Singapore.

(2) The national language shall be the Malay language and shall be in the Roman script:

Provided that —

(a) no person shall be prohibited or prevented from using or from teaching or learning any other language; and

(b) nothing in this Article shall prejudice the right of the Government to preserve and sustain the use and study of the language of any other community in Singapore.

According to the constitution, no ethnic group (or sub group) would be restricted in the study of its language. Though, the study of these languages( of the sub groups) in the mainstream schools, may not be possible due to the highly varying and insufficient demand, these ethnic groups are free to conduct classes and lobby for the maintainance of their respective languages.

Pluralistic Society - Why I am happy to be in Singapore

I am Tamil by ethnicity and I am happy to be in Singapore. Tamil is one of Singapore's four official languages.An official language is a language that is designated as "official" by a state, or other legally-defined territory, usually by legislation, and required in all official government communications - spoken and written. Its required uses can extend to national traffic signs, product labels, storefront signage, voting materials, driving license exams, and other official and legal forms.(wikipedia.com)

The basis for Tamil being one of the official languages, taught in schools, is that Tamils are the majority( 61%) of the Indian community. As such, it stands to reason, why the teaching of Tamil in schools was opted over say Malayalam, another Indian language of another ethnic group, the Malayalees.

I have no qualms with this premise of selection because I happen to be one of those who get the better end of the deal, being Tamil myself. It is rather unfortunate though, that the minority amongst the Indians. a minority group itself, do not get the privilige and benefit of understanding their own ethnic cultures and roots, by means of mainstream schooling.

Professor S Jeyakumar in his opening speech of the upgraded premises of Umar Pulavar in 2001, said that language was a very powerful tool for the communication of ideas and feelings. I quote him, "Learning two languages, Tamil and English, will give our children access into two different cultural worlds. English, as our common working language, gives all students access into the world of commerce, science and technology, while their mother tongue language gives them direct access to their cultural heritage and helps them retain their cultural roots and identity. Their mother tongue gives them a world-view that complements the perspective of the English-speaking world."

Therefore, not learning a language in detail would probably be tentamount to not having access to one's cultural heritage or identity or the thoughts and feelings of one's indegenous community.As a Tamil, I who has had the privilige of studying the language, I know enough to say, it would have been very sad indeed if Tamil wasn taught in schools. There is such a wealth of literature and political and philosophical thought in the Tamil language; so much to learn and think about which is not provided in western schools of thought.I can only imagine the loss Tamils would have been subjected to if the status quo wasn as such.

With that said, there is a great deal of Malayalee literature which I wasn even aware existed till I checked online today. I wonder, if Malayalees or any other minority ethnic Indian sub groups are aware, of the expanse of literature that has been produced in their own respective languages.

I can relate to the English speaking world as a Tamil, because of my education in Tamil.I cannot speak for the other minority ethnic sub groups, but I feel it is something worth thinking about.

I met a Malaysian Tamil recently and was shocked to hear that he does not learn Tamil in school. He can speak Tamil, but he can neither write nor read Tamil. He is therefore, effectively shut off from this wealth of information generated by a group of people I can proudly call my own. The sad irony is that he too, has every right to call this group his own, only he isnt able to, because of the language policy of where he comes from.

Which is why I, a Tamil, am happy to be in Singapore. Which is why I can say chicago jango and enjoy every moment of me and my culture..

ps. If you happen to be interested in the state of Tamil in Singapore, issues like prestige, etc..you could refer to, http://ullnokam.tripod.com/

Sex sells..so does Death - A Dark Comedy? Basic Economics?

As consumers, we have plenty of choices to ponder upon and fuss about. As producers, (if we are producers that is), we find ourself faced with intense competion. You take time to research, plan, and come up with a product. You enjoy the fruits of your hardwork for a while, alas, the realisation that suddenly there are many other products that match yours appearing in the market, dawns on you. What do you do now? You fume over the fact that your hard work has been somewhat reproduced with less than half the legwork and research effort you put in. This is after all a market economy. You either change your product or differentiate it from all the others that look like yours, face up to the competion or simply fold. So we have Zoe Tay saying "I swallow" and suddenly Imedeen, ( a company selling beauty products) have all the spotlight on them. ( what they do with the spotlight though is another story- an issue of capitalisation). So sex sells.In the light of all things being fair in love and war, (business is somewhat like war, in the economic sense), sexual innuendos are employed to win market share and biological weapons are employed to win military conflicts.No biggie.

Speaking of love and war, I always puzzled at the wierd pairing of these words. One connotes acceptance and giving whilst the other achieves the reverse, enmity and destruction. How then did these 2 words get paired up in such a famed saying? I thought about this for a bit and came to this conclusion. Love, (or social status, popularity for personal gain), like war, has become a matter of life and death - profiteering from ones death in the betterment of life for another.

We, yet to even enter the workforce, also find ourselves in a market economy, though of a different sort. In this economy, we do not need to own a business to be a market player.Indeed,every heterosexual is in his or her own right both the market player, (ie. producer of a product) and the consumer. We are producers of a product; our own social image and consumer of a product; the social image of a member of the opposite sex.
By social image, what I mean is how we choose to portray ourselves in the light of public scrutiny. We all hope to come across as a good person at least to the people we are close to or want to be close to ( for whatever reason). In that spirit, some of us are willing to go a little further in proving our 'goodness' to whoever we are close to or want to get close to.Some of us, even to the extent of exploiting a death.

I knew this guy a few years back.I do not really know him on a very personal basis, but when you belong to a large social circle, you do not have to know a person on a personal basis to know about him; you may not know him; but you could know about him.When he was still alive, he was not exactly everyone's best friend. For that matter, probably none of us are. This guy though, did have a considerable amout of people who had a considerable amount of grievances about him. A lot of gossip was going around about his ways.As life would have it, he passed on, suddenly and abruptly.And just as suddenly and abruptly, he became everyone's best friend. This was a rather interesting phenomenon, with people who barely knew him crying buckets and mourning as if the deceased was even one of their very own, there were those who even rolled on the ground mopping and grieving. With all due respect to the genuine grief many were feeling, these particular some really had no reason to be mourning that intensely. Unless of course, it was all part of the effort.The effort to be accepted and looked up to. Some may have been grieving to make up for the guilt they felt for treating that particular guy in the way they did, some to justify their behaviour toward him, and others to simply be connected to the spot where the spotlight shone.As onlookers of this strange phenomenon, me and a dear friend, couldn help but feel like as though we were in a dark comedy, where someone's death could actually be manipulated for personal gain.

My friend and I, we did not shed a tear. We were shocked, no doubt, but not shattered. We did not attempt to conjure up a sudden flood of sorrow either, which is why we noticed this strange phenomenon, encompassing some of those we knew.

Death is a somber event.The deep loss felt by the loved ones left behind cannot be expressed but by tears.The yearning, the hopes, the plans for the future, instantly shattered, all in that one instant. We should honour the dead; not exploit them. Dead men may tell no tales, but the manifestations of the conscience does. All may be fair in love and war, but should we really go to the extent of exploiting the dead? Do we really want to be part of a dark comedy or meagre men seeking merely economic gain? Death like sex sells. Dont sell it..after all, whoever we are and wherever we are, death, like taxes, is certain.

Another young person, a schoolmate, someone I do not know on a personal basis, has passed on of late. Lets honour the dead. May their spirits rest in peace.