FREEDOM

Finding the path

I was watching a documentary about india and heard the word of a Buddhist monk. He told the interviewer, ”I can tell your something about your country; you are too developed your technological advances make you stressed, make you forget your human nature. Your mind is always busy elsewhere, it doesn’t have the time, People don’t even realize that they are going to die one day”’ His words pierced through me like a knife. He was right, sometimes, between the clatter of the keyboard and the gulps of coffee, I ask myself, ‘what’s the point of everything”.

We ask questions about life and meaning; we spend years searching for that ‘thing’ that gives meaning and reason to keep on sweating and ploughing the fields of life. Some of us may go on pilgrimages to holy place to find meaning, to find God, to Varanasi, by the Ganges River, or Tibet or Makkah or, perhaps, Jerusalem, But ad the poet and Sufi mystic Jalaludin Rumi said, he went to all the holy places in the world and he did not find God, but, “Finally, I looked into my own heart and there I saw Him; He was nowhere else “, Maybe it is not so much the destination but the journey that actually brings about this consciousness. I’II let you know when I figure this one out.

I would like to address the millennium Development Goals poster on page 36-37. In May 2013, policy makers, advocates and expert from across the globe gathered in Kuala Lumpur for a conference called Women Deliver 2013 to discuss matters related to women’s health and empowerment. It addressed the Millennium Development Goals, and the goal at the time involved maternal health. There were many discussions on where humanity stood in achieving these goals. If you browse through the goals, they should strike a chord – ending poverty, universal primary education, promoting gender equality, etc. Malaysia has done well in improving maternal health and reducing child deaths, but we can do better. If you have noticed, our politicians are keen on discussing matters as basic as gender equality, maternal health and environmental sustainability. A question of priorities?


I had the opportunity to attend the conference and was privileges to be at the premiere of a documentary called Girl Rising. It told the story of the girls from different parts of the world and the injustices they face, ie, exclusion from education, arranged marriages and child slaver. It was an eye-opening experience and I believe that humanity’s fate lies in equality, not exclusion.

Writing by :

WAN ARUSSANI FADIHA BIN WAN HASHIM

MUHAMMAD SYAFIQ BIN NORZAIDI

MOHAMAD ASHRAF BIN MOHD RIDZUAN

NA'IMAN BIN ISMAYUDIN