EMAIL FROM PRINCE OF BRUNEI?

Prince Jefri Bolkiah of Brunei

WOW!! Who would ever imagine that I would one day received an email from a royalty?? Me of all people!!?

But that's exactly what happened. On the 8 Nov, I received an email from Prince Jefri Bolkiah himself, the brother to the existing king of Brunei, asking for my help and wanted me to become his business partner. The amount that he will be entrusting me with is US$50 million.

Check out his email below.

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Hahaha.. I can't help but laugh!! It's FAKE!!

Let me tell you now that this is NOT an email from any prince. The sender is actually an impostor trying to lure me into some scheme. I know this because this is not the first time that I have received an email from an impostor. And very often, these impostors would use the names of some well known figures, such as above, as a bait to capture the interest of the receiver.

Previously, I have also received emails from "True King of Perak", "Rightful descendant of the legendary Mahsuri", "Deputy President of a Bank" and "Exile Ex-Minister of Libya" to name a few. 

And through those emails, I have also been gained many amazing titles including "The Chosen One" or "Allah Elected One" or "True Friend" and "God's Miracle" among others. Lucky me!

Here's the one which gave me the title "Allah elected one"! Her story - She lost her husband and has no child. And now, she herself is dying and needed me to manage the wealth of $8.2 million. And get this, she promised me that $2.5 million will purely be mine. Whoaaa....

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It's a FAKE!!

Very often, these emails would start off stating that there is 'No Risk' on the part of the receiver, which is me. They just needed somebody to manage their wealth for them, mainly for charity. And the amount could reach up to hundreds of millions of dollars. And at the end of this venture, I will either inherit the entire amount with absolute freedom to do whatever I wish with that money or they would promise me a cut, say 30% from US$500,000,000, which will still come up to millions of dollars.

WOW! That simple huh??

But trust me, this is just a scheme. I know because I have been a victim before.

If we respond to the email, they would ALWAYS remind us of how this venture is in the name of god and god will make sure that we will be rewarded for our good deeds. At first, they would normally ask us some innocent questions or instructions. This is to build up our confidence in this 'extraordinary' opportunity. They know that the more we correspond, the more we would believe that this is a genuine thing.

It would take a few emails before they would suddenly highlight a 'small' problem. They would tell us that the promised amount suddenly got stuck at the immigration or central bank monitoring system or some technical issues. They call it a 'small problem' because all they need us to do is to just pay a small amount to get it sorted. Perhaps $100,000 administrative payment to get the promised amount of $500,000,000 released. By comparison, the payment is nothing!

And at this point, if we hesitated, they would even challenge our commitment after 'all that they have done'.

"I trust that in the true name of god, you will not bail out on me at this point after all that I have done thus far. Please find a way to help me get this sorted, so that we can get the money out and continue our plan for the sake of the all mighty!" read one of the emails I received before.

But after you make that payment, they will disappear without a trace. Going the to police will not help, because the police officers will just laugh at you. That's what happened to me.

Here's another one of those emails I received. This one is interesting because it uses reverse psychology technique of asking me to BE HONEST. He said that he has $20 million with a finance security company in Europe. He just need me to help him retrieve it and he would give me 10% from the amount retrieved.

Lucky me, right??

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It's a FAKE!!

Others would also use some sad story to gain sympathy. This one below is from someone who has $10.8 million to be given away. She lost her husband and has no child, and now she herself is dying. Boo Hoo!! This story is similar to the earlier one, which gave me the title 'Allah elected one'.

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And I have many-many more emails that I can share. But perhaps, another time.

It makes me sick to know that there are people out there that wakes up every morning with the intend to cheat people. Not the desperados - I am not talking about those people who resorted to stealing or mugging due to desperate life circumstances. And don't get me wrong, I concur no support for those group either, but at least they were pushed by desperation.

But these impostors make a living out of cheating people!

Sick!!

Dear friends, 

If you ever receive such email, do not get fooled. 

They can be very convincing.

Just be careful.

GHOST IN KOREA - STORY OF A WHITE FIGURE

While on vacation in Korea last year, our tourist guide, Mr Park loves to tell us stories. One of the stories he told us was his own ghost experience.

Mr Park first explained that the Korean people believe that a ghost can only physically touch you if you give your consent to them. And a consent is considered given if you look directly at the ghost. So, he reminded us, if you feel that there is a ghost presence, DO NOT look directly at it.

He then told us of his own experience with a ghost. He was just 10 years old at that time and he goes for afternoon school. His class would normally end around 5pm and he would walk back home. One day, he told us that he went back home a bit late because he and his friends decided to hangout at this rice shop after school - (Yes, Korean eat rice too)

By the time they left the rice shop, it was already around 6:30pm and it is almost dusk. While walking home, suddenly from the corner of his eyes, he caught a glimpse of a white figure behind him. 

He froze! 

Then he remembered the advise that as long as he don't look directly at the ghost, it will not be able to touch him physically. So, he continued walking. After a few steps, he looked from the corner of his eyes again to check if the figure is still there and it was!

He continued walking, a bit faster this time. And after a few more steps, he looked from the corner of his eyes again and the white figure was still following him. 

"Damn!!" he said to himself.

So, he walked even faster and faster and faster. And every time he looked from the corner of his eyes, the white figure is still there following him. It moves as fast has he is - It was chasing him. He was already freaking out!

Finally he reached his house and immediately ran to his mom.

"MOM!! MOM!! Help!!!!" he said.

"Why? What happen??" asked his mom.

But before he could catch his breath to explain, his mom said "Wait...."

Then his mom reached out her hand to his face and picked something off the corner of his eyes. It was a grain of white rice sticking at the corner of his eye.

And slowly, it all begin to make sense to him. The 'white figure' he saw chasing after him just now was actually that white rice sticking at the corner of his eyes!!! 

Hehehe...

"So what happened to you?" asked the mother.

"Emm.. Nothing!" he said with a cheeky grin........... :)

READ ALSO :
STORY OF A HAUNTED HILL
STORY OF A TWISTED DEATH
WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THAT???

GHOST IN KOREA - STORY OF A HAUNTED HILL

Have you notice that there have been a lot of horror or ghost movies in the cinema lately? Somehow, this reminds me of a story told by our tourist guide, Mr Park, while I was on vacation in Korea with my wife last year. 

We were travelling on a tour bus and Mr Park, a Korean, showed us around. He then showed us a place in Jeju Island, where we should all avoid if travelling at night. It is somewhat a hill, which is located in the middle of the island. 

If travelling in the daytime, he said, it may be a good short cut to get from the north to the south of the island. But at night, he warned us NOT to go through that hill. It would be better to travel around the island, instead of passing through that hill.

"Longer time to reach your destination, but at least you'll reach your destination safely" he said. 

Mr Park told us of a story about this cab driver (let's call him Kee), who did not really believe in superstitions. One fateful night, Kee have just sent his last passenger to his destination at the north of the island. Then he wanted to drive back to his house at the south of the island. Although he have heard stories about the hill, but he always brushes the stories aside as mere superstitions. So, he confidently drove across the hill, alone in the middle of the night.

Not long after entering the hill, he saw a lady standing by the roadside. She was dressed in white and hailing his cab. Maybe because Kee has always brushes the stories aside, it did not immediately click to him on who this lady might be. So, he stopped and the lady entered the back seat of his cab.

"Where to, miss?" asked Kee.

"To the south, please" replied the lady, polite.

And they drove off. The lady's perfume quickly filled the car, very sweet and nice.

"Nice perfume!" compliment Kee with a smile, hoping to strike a conversation.

But strangely, he did not receive any reply back. So, he took a glance through the rear view mirror. His heart almost stopped when he see that there was NO ONE in the back seat of his cab!! 

(Oh no!!) He thought to himself.

Kee continue to drive. And while he drives, stories that he have heard about the hill started to come back to him. But for a reason only known to him, instead of just keeping quiet, Kee decided to call out to the lady just to make sure.

"H-Helloo miss..... Are you there??" said Kee with a bit of a trembling voice.

"Yes I am here!" suddenly came a reply.

Kee almost leaped when he heard this reply coming from behind him. He quickly glance at the rear view mirror again and still he sees no one there at the back seat of his cab. He doesn't know what to do and he can now feel his whole body freezing of fear. Sweats started to form on his forehead and he started to imagine the worse.

Out of panic, he quickly pressed the breaks and his cab came to a screeching stop!!

When he turn around to look - he saw the horrible truth! The white dress the lady was wearing is now filled with blood, which was dripping down from her face.

....

Suddenly Mr Park stopped his story there.

"Then what happen??" we asked Mr Park, wanting to know the ending.

Mr Park looked at us and smiled.

"You really want to know?" asked Mr Park.

"Of course!!" we all replied.

"Ok actually, the lady was not a ghost", Mr Park explained.

"She was actually hiding behind the driver's seat because she was digging her nose. So, when the driver pressed the break, she accidentally poked her nose too deep and her nose bleed!! Hahahaha...."

"Eeeeeeeuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...!!!" we all replied.

Hahaha.. GOOD ONE, MR PARK!!

READ ALSO : 
STORY OF A WHITE FIGURE
STORY OF A TWISTED DEATH
WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THAT????

LEARNING FROM MISTAKES AND SECOND CHANCES

As we know, changes happen all the time. Think about it.. how have our lives changed through the years. Some of the changes are based on our conscious decisions, while some changes are inevitable and we just have to follow the flow. From the day we were born, whether we realize it or not, we have been making decisions for ourselves and would have already made a lot of mistakes. Some still haunt us till today. But through those mistakes, we are able to grow up. And as we grow up, we become a better decision maker. The more mistake we make, the more we learn and the wiser we become.

And very often, mistakes happen when we are faced with changes that we are unfamiliar with. This is because our mind would need more time to consider the best option to react to the changes and due to that, we may end up picking the wrong option.

That is how learning process works.

If we were to repeat the situation in which we have made a mistake before, our mind should now recognize the situation. So, it is unlikely that we are going to pick the same option because our mind now knows that it would lead to the same outcome - a mistake. We would have learned from it and will pick the other option.

Everybody deserve that chance to make things right pick the other option. Learning from mistakes is indeed a build-in human ability.

Now, let's move the other part of this topic - "Second Chances".

Some of us may be strict and demand for perfection, while some may be more lenient in giving second chances. Then there are those who frequently takes advantage of the leniency of others by continue to repeat the same mistakes, with the confident that they will always be forgiven and getting second chances. Well, we all know that second chances may not always be the case.

It is sometimes disheartening to see a person's future ruined from their mistakes in the past and was not given a second chance to prove otherwise. But it is also equally disheartening to see a person not learning from his mistakes and keep repeating them.

So, who gets to decide the deserving criteria for second chances? And who gets to decide how many 'second chances' that one person deserve?

Here are some quotes I collected from the internet:

"Sometime you need second chances, because time wasn't ready for the first one"

"Life isn't forever, so make sure we do our best the first time because sometimes there aren't any second chances"

"Everyone makes mistakes in life, but that does not mean that they have to pay for it for the rest of their life. Good people makes bad choices too sometimes. It doesn't mean that they are bad. It just means that they are human"

"You cannot call it a mistake, when you do it over and over again"

"Second chances does not always lead to a happy ending, but at least we don't have to keep wondering 'what if..?' "

WOULD YOU GIVE SOMEONE SECOND CHANGES? HOW MANY WOULD YOU GIVE?

CAKAPDOTCOM with CIDB Kuantan

CakapDotCom added another historical event on 10 November 2012 to its list of accolades when we were invited by the Construction Industry Development Board, CIDB, in Kuantan to organize a Public Speaking event for its staffs there.

Elite facilitators, who are also communication celebrities, Mazidul Akmal Sidik, Hj Omar Abdullah and Zakiah Anas was there to make this event a success.

And I must also add  that CIDB staffs were sporting and spirited bunch, making the event even more exciting. 

To read more on this - Click here.

HISTORY OF AIDILADHA and THE KAABAH

A few days ago, one of my non-Muslim friends, Letchu, asked me about the history of AIDILADHA? Although unexpected, I was happy that he asked me that question. As a Muslim, I may have taken it for granted and assumed that everybody KNOWS the history of Aidiladha. That question from Lechu made me realize that it was wrong for me to assume.

If you have some time, let me share with you now the answer I gave him.

Letchu asked me that question because his son recently asked him that same question and he was not very sure of the answer.

"What is Aidiladha, appa?" ask his 7 years old son.

He told his son that Muslims are required to perform religious ritual and pilgrimage known as Haji in Mecca at least once in their entire life. That is why Muslims every year celebrates Aidiladha, which is also known as Hari Raya Haji - which is to celebrate those who have completed their Hajj Pilgrimage.

I was impressed and told him that that answer he gave his son is correct. So, I just elaborated a little bit more.


THE DATE

AIDILADHA falls on the 10th of Zuhijjah every year. Zulhijjah being the final month in the Islamic calender. If we are following the Western calender (also known as the Gregorian calender), we may feel like the date of Aidiladha changes every year. But in the Islamic calender, Aidiladha is always on the 10th of Zulhijjah.


HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE

In Islam, the date of 10th Zulhijjah has two major significance - Date for union and date for sacrifice.

First significant - 10th zulhijjah is the date in which Adam and his wife Hawa (Eve) were reunited on earth. Regardless of what religion you may be, I believe that everyone knows the story of Adam and Hawa - how they were banished from heaven after falling for Iblis's trickery to get them to eat the forbidden apple. For that one moment of weakness, they were both banished from heaven.

Before I continue, allow me point out that Adam and Hawa regretted that they had foolishly fallen for the trickery of Iblis. They repented their whole life and Allah have accepted their repentance.

When they were sent down from heaven, they were placed at two different locations on earth. They were separated for many years. Some say 40 years, while some say a few hundred years - wallahualam (Allah knows best). After many years of searching, they finally found each other again at Mount Rahmah in Arafah. That reunion is indeed a cause to celebrate as it marks the beginning of human race.

Now, a day before the anniversary of the reunion of Adam and Hawa, Arafah became the place of union again for all hajj pilgrims to perform their first hajj ritual, Wukuf . Hence, Aidiladha is also known as Hari Raya Haji.

Mount Rahmah in Arafah

Second significant - Aidiladha is also known as Hari Raya Qurban.

Qurban is an arabic word meaning 'sacrifice'.

During the time of Adam and Hawa, there is a story about qurban. A story told in the Quran in Surah Al-Maidah about Adam's two sons, Habil and Qabil. These two brothers worked in different areas. Habil works in the cattle farm, while Qabil works in the field. Came a command from Allah for both of them to perform qurban, which is to sacrifice their harvest. That is the first qurban in human history. Habil chooses the healthiest among his breed of cattles to be sacrificed, while Qabil chooses the worse from his crops. Habil's sacrifice were accepted, while Qabil's were not. Out of anger and jealousy, Qabil later killed his brother, Habil. That marks the first murder in human history.

But the history of why Aidiladha is also known as Hari Raya Qurban is more closely related to the history of Porphet Ibrahim and his son, Prophet Ismail. And this relates to another significant history of the 10th of Zulhijjah.

Qurban (sacrifice)

The second significance of the 10th of Zulhijjah is that this is the date when Prophet Ibrahim were to carry out his duty to slaughter his son, Prophet Ismail. This is told in the Quran in Surah As-Shafaat, where Prophet Ibrahim received a command from Allah through a dream to slaughter is son, Ismail. He then told about his dream to Ismail, who was only 7 years old at that time and Ismail replied :

"Oh father, go ahead and carry out the duty as you have been commanded. You will see that I am one of those who are patient" 

So, Prophet Ibrahim took his son to a slaughtering place in Mina. Here, both father and son have truly shown absolute faith in Allah. Ismail willingly lay there to be slaughtered, while his father begin to cut his throat. They both had their eye closed during the slaughtering - and a miracle happened. As they open their eyes, they realize that Ismail is still alive and what Ibrahim had actually slaughtered was a kibas (species of a camel). Allah replaces Ismail's place with the kibas because the dream was really a test as Allah confirmed in the Quran.

That is the history of Aidiladha and why it is also known as Hari Raya Haji and Hari Raya Qurban.


Letchu then asked me another question :

"What about the history of Kaabah and the Black Stone?"

Kaabah and Hajar Aswad

Here's what I told him.

Before earth was even created, angels used to make Tawaf around the Arsy of Allah. Both the words 'Tawaf' and 'Arsy' actually carries its own elaboration, but to translate that into easily understood words - the angels used to circle around the throne of Allah, just like how we see Muslims circling around Kaabah today. But the Arsy of Allah is too big, even for the angels. It took them a very long time to complete a single circle. So, Allah created a mosque under His Arsy as a place in heaven for the angels to perform Tawaf. The place is call Darul Makmur.

When Adam was sent down to earth, Allah commanded him to build Kaabah on Earth. The angel Jibrail helped marked the place where Kaabah should be and Adam started digging the spot. And that is all Kaabah was back then. The spot where Jibrail had marked is directly below Darul Makmur. It is said that if Darul Makmur were to fall down to earth, it would crush the Kaabah.

As for the black stone, Hajar Aswad, it is a stone from heaven and was sent down to earth with Adam. But angels kept this stone in one of the hills in Mecca called Qubais Hill. This stone was originally white in color and it has the ability to absorb all of human sins, should we be able to kiss it. But after many-many-many years of absorbing human sins, it is now black in color and took the name of Aswad, which is an arabic word for 'black'.

After Adam passed away, his son, Syith build some sort of a structure on the spot where Adam had initially dug. However, during the time of Prophet Nuh (Noah) and the history of the big flood, that structure was completely destroyed.

It is not until Prophet Ibrahim's time, that Allah has commanded him to rebuild the Kaabah. This is when the history of Kaabah and the Black Stone came together.

Prophet Ibrahim and his son, Prophet Ismail took stones from seven hills around Mecca to build the Kaabah. While they were building, the angel Jibrail took out the Black Stone from Qubais Hill and gave it to Ibrahim to be made part of the Kaabah. The structure still stand until today, with several preservative measures taken from time to time.

That is the history of the Kaabah and the black stone, Hajar Aswad.

Wallahualam.

DARE TO FAIL vs FAILURES : LET'S UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCE BEFORE TAKING THE PLUNGE

I read the books 'Dare To Fail' by Billi Lim and 'Who Moved My Cheese?' by Dr Spencer Johnson a few years ago, and I had the privilege of reading them again recently.

Excellent books which I would recommend to everyone.

These books talk about changes in life and how many of us would rather hang on to our old methods and easily get panic when changes happen. Think about it, what dreams and fantasies have we put aside to settle for a routine that we are already familiar with, although deep down, we know that we can do more or deserve more?

Yes, indeed we may have put a lot of effort into stabilizing our lives. So, why on earth would we want to go through that period of uncertainty again just to chase after a dream, right? Well, that's a valid question. But we hardly want to hear the answer because our mind is already made up and we are staying put!

The good news is I am not going to elaborate too much about these books. I shall leave it in your hands to decide if it would be worth a read. What I would like to point out is the misconceptions that many people have gotten from these books (through no fault of the authors of course).

I have heard many people quoted the title of these books, without really understanding the content. Let me say that the book 'Dare to Fail' is NOT a book about how to fail with style, but rather it talks about having that confident to pursue a quest or a dream, even if failure is one of the possible outcome. Likewise, the book 'Who Moved My Cheese?' is NOT a book about being greedy and blindly moving about in life from one dream to another, but rather it talks about the courage and the mindset towards changes in life.

I am afraid that these misconceptions could lead to a disastrous outcome, rather than what those books are intended for.

Humans has the capability of learning from our mistakes.

Remember how we learn how to walk? Well, maybe we can't remember our own experience, but look at how babies learn how to walk. They have to fall down a couple of times first before they could finally properly walk, right?

Remember how we learn to avoid dangers? Out of curiosity as a child, we tend to venture into things that could really hurt us - poking the electrical sockets, touching a hot plate, running on a slippery surface, playing in the rain or taking other people's things without permission. Not knowing that those are potential dangers, we were sometimes surprised to suddenly get scolding for doing those things, remember? Again, if we can't remember our own childhood, then look at the children's faces now when they get scolding for doing something that is harmful. They looked so innocent as if they did not know that those things are dangerous. The fact is, they REALLY did not know! But they will learn from that experience and will avoid doing those things again.

Remember how we learn how to ride a bicycle? We have to endure falling down a couple of times first before we could finally ride the bicycle properly. On this, let me share my own experience. I learned how to ride a bicycle first before learning to use the breaks. 

Funny story - Although I knew the function of the break, but I always use my feet as breaks. On a flat ground, that is not a problem. One day, going down a hill, my bicycle gained speed and I got panic. It did not immediately occur to me to use the hand break to slow down the speed. As always, I used my feet instead. Boy, my bicycle wobbled so bad that day. And for some reason, only then did it suddenly triggered me to use the hand break. So, in that wobbling situation, I squeezed the hand break and the bike stopped!

Big mistake!!

It immediately threw me forward. I flew in the air and then rolled down the rest of the way to the bottom of the hill. Before I could pick myself up, the bike which was rolling down after me, landed directly on me. An experience I can never forget.

This is not me! Just a photo I pick from internet to illustrate my point

Well, enough of going down memory lane. The point is, it is a natural talent of humans to learn from mistakes. We learn so much as a child and we progressed so much into adulthood. But as we grow up, we somehow stopped learning. Agree? Disagree? Well, hear me out.

When was the last time we really made a mistake and learn from it?

Have we really conquered perfection that we no longer make mistakes in our lives?

Or it is because we are afraid of making mistakes that we avoid things altogether?

But wait! Don't be too quick to take the plunge. Before we start making changes in our lives blindly, think about it and plan for it. Seek out as many information as we can to make an informed decision. After that is done, HAVE THAT COURAGE to make changes and continue to seek for a better life.

That is what it is all about!

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