Fond Memories of the National Library

A chapter of Singapore history ended when the National Library at Stamford closes recently.

The National Library building at Stamford Road which celebrated its groundbreaking in 1957 and officially opened for service in 1960 has now moved on to the next chapter in acquiring a new spot at Victoria Street that boasts state-of-the-art facilities and information hub to serve a wide area of services to its publics.

In commemorating the end of a chapter, the National Library Board (NLB) has invited the Singapore public with fond memories of the place to submit their reminiscences in the form of short write-up, photography, drawing or cartoon. The outcome of these submissions is a coffee table book entitled, Moments in Time: Memories of the National Library, which will be launched on December 9, 2004 at the library in Esplanade. It is therefore my privilege to be invited for the book launch and for the opportunity to contribute one of the many articles in the book.

The National Library building at Stamford holds a very important place in my heart because it was there that I first found my love in writing, as a result of organised group meetings introduced by the library under the flagship of the Young Writers’ Circle. These meetings are held regularly on a monthly basis for the purpose of promoting local literature writing in prose, poem, freelance, and short stories. It is therefore with heart-felt sadness that I bid farewell to the many fond memories of this building as it vanish into yet another chapter in the Singapore history.

A Christmas Story

The happiest person is not someone who received a wonderful present on Christmas, but someone who after days in an open boat, or after hours in a crippled airplane, or after minutes in a burning building, is RESCUED!

We thrill when we read of the rescue of miners or of mountain climbers or of a child who has fallen deep into a well. What irony when a soldeir risks his life to save a buddy, only to have this buddy refuse help, claiming that he can solve his own problem. And then he dies!

The greatest rescue operation of all time began on the first Christmas Day. Yet most of us refuse to be rescued! We are confident that we can solve our own problems. We deny that we are in danger.

But man's danger is fantastically great:

the 'ordinary' dangers of sickness, accident, war, poverty, and death
striving for the wrong goals in life
misplaced self-confidence and uawareness of the spiritual world
the lack of realization that he is destined to live forever - in unspeakable sorrow or in unspeakable joy.
In fact, man's danger was so great that the infinite God had to become man in order to rescue man. No one else could do it! God became man in the person of the baby Jesus. That is why Christmas is so important.

You see, man has sinned. Now sin is not some minor weakness that can be cured by a few good intentions, or a few good works, or even a few prayers and other religious activities. No, our sin was a rebellion against God; a selling of ourselves to the devil; a total pollution of our wills and minds and souls.

The only rescue from this pit of degradation is by someone taking the punishment due us and also having the power to clean up our innermost being.

And this is exactly what Jesus Christ did. Since He is the sinless Son of God, he could bear the infinite anger of God against all sin. And He sends His Spirit into the lives of all who come to Him to cleanse them from every impurity.

The proof of God's amazing love is this: that it was while we were sinners that Christ died for us. No condemnation now hangs over the head of those who are 'in' Christ Jesus. For the new spiritual principle of life 'in' Christ Jesus lifts me out of the old vicious circle of sin and death.

But this rescue must be accepted. We must confess our sin, ask God's forgiveness, and accept the only way of salvation: faith in Jesus Christ.

If we freely admit that we have sinned, we find God utterly reliable and straight forward - He forgives our sins and makes us thoroughly clean from all that is evil.

For God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son so that everyone who believes in Him should not be lost, but should have eternal life.

What a wonderful salvation from a horrible condition! This is why it is a ... Merry Christmas!

To know more about the Christian faith, feel free to join the Living Water group blog. You need not be a Christian to join the group ... all you need is an interest to find out more!

by Faith, Prayer & Tract League, Grand Rapids, Michigan

Time and Money

When you have the money, you seldom have the time, and when you have the time, you are likely to be short of money. That is the irony of life.
When a person has lots of time at hand, he or she is probably a student, a home maker, a freelancer, a contract worker temporary unengaged for duties, an unemployed, or very rich. For an average adult who are neither rich nor a beggar, he or she is probably without work, awaiting assignment, or in transit.
The best time for a person to relax or engage in doing things he or she really likes, is when he or she is without active work. Unfortunately, things that a person likes are usually hobbies, travelling, or other leisure pleasures, and all these activities cost money. Because the person is not actively engaged in income making work, all these pleasures of life are seldom realisable. Hence, the person labours and works hard to obtain the money so as to fulfill wants, but when the cash rolls in, there is simply no time to take leave to engage in leisure pleasures or hobbies. Even if leave is possible, it is often engaged with a non restful mind, stressed by work that are impending, hence, such leisure becomes non-pleasurable.
The reality of life on earth is such. People work hard to get money so that they can have enough for survival and to spend time on leisure, but time is what they don't have. Forgoing the job to find time to de-stress and engage in pleasure on the other hand may be unwise, because without active work, the mind finds no rest and is pressured to find new avenues for survival.
This is the irony between time and money.

Sleazy Videos

Imagine the kind of videos allowed on the web these days. You no longer have to go to porn sites to be enticed. Today, even public video hosting sites like YouTube has materials that, in my opinion, are disconcerting.

The following are screen captures of two videos showing how degrading our generation has become!

If you agree with me on this, feel free to leave me your comment at this blog entry, and let's talk about what measures we can take to disallow such obscene display of sensuality in the public eye.

My MoBlogger Friends

This entry is dedicated to all My Moblogger Friends and supporters of my blogs! Special acknowledgements to:

Lixin:
who brings much cheer and makes my time spent on blogging all worthwhile. Blogging will not be so interesting without nice people like her! :D

Jinny:
who I am concerned for and hope will experience better days ahead and to find purpose in God to understand the troubles she is going through.

MisirLou:
who is young in the Lord ... to discover greater things in the word of God and to walk faithfully.

Garfield:
who actively participates in making moblog.com.sg a place for greater interests in movies and mobiles.

Yesac121:
for recommending interesting eateries for supper.

Farahrri; SyeLai; Lagoon; Yesac121; Lixin:
for participating in Vacation Travel community blog and for actively sharing experiences about travelling.

JaNiCe; HostSara:
for participating in my article on blogging.

Moblog Support:
for bearing with my many complains and feedback on issues encountered moblogging moblog.com.sg.

Everyone at moblog.com.sg:
who has made blogging here so communicable, friendly, and constructive.

GOD:
for giving me opportunities to know some of you fairly well through moblogging, to help some mobloggers face their problems, and some to obtain technical support, and many just in sharing experiences.

Have fun blogging, everyone who reads this entry! :D