Tuesday 29 December 2015

Why you should care about "Let it go" - the song

My first encounter with the song "Let it go..." was when someone's G+ share showed a little toddler trying to sing along with her mother (I think). It was just funny how the infant was trying to repeat the words without any clue of what she was saying.

I hadn't paid much attention to this song until I notice many youngsters including my kids either humming the tune or singing parts of the lyrics. It was quite catchy and I started to get curious about what this song was about.

And then I discovered that it was a song from a Walt Disney animation called "Frozen". I haven't watched it and I don't think I want to either. But after a little search, I learned about the story and the song.

And guess what...? It's bad news!

Apparently the movie was very famous 2 years ago. The story is about two sisters - princesses - Elsa and Anna. And as usual, yes, it's got magic. Here they go again...

Elsa could freeze things. She could turn things into ice. Once by mistake she had frozen her sister Anna. But then she had to keep this a secret and she tried hard to control herself.

But as they grew older, Elsa was angry at Anna because Anna had found a prince called Hans. This coincidentally was before Elsa's coronation. The misunderstanding grew into a fight and Elsa lost control. As a result, the entire setting was frozen.

Elsa runs off into the mountains into her icy aboard. All by herself, she sings Let it go...

    The snow glows white on the mountain tonight
    Not a footprint to be seen
    A kingdom of isolation,
    And it looks like I'm the queen.

    The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside
    Couldn't keep it in, heaven knows I tried

    Don't let them in, don't let them see
    Be the good girl you always have to be
    Conceal, don't feel, don't let them know
    Well, now they know
These seem like words of sadness and guilt. but in a very strange way... From the above words, she recalls how she had tried to keep the whole thing a secret. But she failed and 'now they know'... And as she continues, Elsa tries to feel comfortable about what she has done.

    Let it go, let it go
    Can't hold it back anymore
    Let it go, let it go
    Turn away and slam the door
    I don't care
    What they're going to say
    Let the storm rage on,
    The cold never bothered me anyway

    It's funny how some distance
    Makes everything seem small
    And the fears that once controlled me
    Can't get to me at all


Looks to me like she's made up her mind that there's no looking back. What an attitude, especially for someone who was going to be made queen? Seems like his part is basically building up hatred, selfishness and carelessness using sadness as a channel. Definitely not the way we want our kids to grow.

Don't you see how she admits her 'fear' in the past? Fear of hurting others. But now she just doesn't care.

And next, she comes up with a very nasty attitude... She sings:

    It's time to see what I can do
    To test the limits and break through
    No right, no wrong, no rules for me
    I'm free


Really? Does she think that she's in control? What on earth is she saying? She doesn't distinguish right from wrong - it's all the same to her. And worse, she claims that she's free to do what she wants! Seriously, is this what our kids are singing? I don't think they even know the context of the words.

This also reminds me of my childhood. How many nursery rhymes we sang and most of them were destructive or bad news.

    Jack and Jill... Jack broke his head.
    Rock a by baby... cradle falls.
    Humpty Dumpty... just gone into pieces
    The London Bridge... you know what happens
    Georgy Porgy... what a pervet who kissed the girls to make them cry.
   
But until I really grew up, I never took a moment to think of the words. We just enjoyed singing them. But this song "Let it go" is way worse than all of the songs I've known in my childhood.

Back on the song, Elsa sings these words as she reaches the final part:

    Let it go, let it go
    I am one with the wind and sky
    Let it go, let it go
    You'll never see me cry
    Here I stand
    And here I'll stay
    Let the storm rage on


    My power flurries through the air into the ground
    My soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all around
    And one thought crystallizes like an icy blast
    I'm never going back,
    The past is in the past


This shows Elsa's heartless attitude of never going to cry. And what's that crap about one with the wind and sky? Is she a witch? She confirms her place in the mountains; in her icy-home where she plans on staying without going back to her sister and her people. She builds this attitude like she's powerful. Any kid singing these words simply forgets that there's the one true creator (in Arabic we call Allah) who has full power over all things. These words are designed to make one deny the truth. It inculcates in young minds to forget about the past and not learn from it. To ignore your true creator. To deny that you have limited strength.

And the final words:

    Let it go, let it go
    And I'll rise like the break of dawn
    Let it go, let it go
    That perfect girl is gone

    Here I stand
    In the light of day
    Let the storm rage on,
    The cold never bothered me anyway


Selfishness beyond imagination! I have seen people in the real world who speak such words. But that's when they're on something really high (yes, like drugs). Otherwise, they're not able to even imagine such evil. So I'm starting to think if Elsa is on drugs.

As the story closes, Hans tries to take advantage of the opportunity. The sisters reunite and things become good again. So goes the crazy magical story...

But all of this is pulled out of context when kids around the world who don't even know what they're saying go about singing "I don't care... right or wrong... I'm free"! And for a child who is attached to this tone of singing, it can make them very troubled and sad when they're told not to do this. All those values and manners we teach the kids just get wiped out by something like this.

I really hope that more adults (parents in particular) will pay attention to this and discourage their kids from singing this. At least it would be nice to see someone rewrite the song with a more positive approach.

Additional note: To the muslim folks out there... Please pay attention to these points and remind yourselves and your children of them:

  1. We accept that Allah is our Creator. In fact he is the only creator.
  2. We do not believe in magic. What people call magic are usually evil acts done either using the jinns (demons), or they're trickery.
  3. We should teach our kids acts of kindness and teach them not to hurt others. Teach them to care and share. Not to be selfish.
  4. The story and the song promote shirk (making partners with the creator) and this is clearly forbidden in Islam.

Tuesday 3 July 2012

Job scam alert in Sri Lanka!

We know that many Sri Lankans seek employment overseas (particularly in the Middle East) and often times, they do this for very petty salaries. But it's their thought that at least that money can be made if they worked overseas, rather than struggle to survive in their own land. Then again, this is not always the case, as there are well-paid jobs too...

Now to the subject of recruitment... We know that recruitment agencies play a vital role in liaising with the foreign employer to send our folks abroad. These agencies seem to be very complex in their operations and a typical recruitment involves communication between various other organisations both locally and abroad.

Sometimes prospective employees (job-seekers) can be misled by the name of the recruiting agent. For example, you may find an old agency that used to offer a great service in the past, continuing to exist, but their services may have turned out to be horrible. The same goes to some old schools that are only popular because of their past but today they're not even close to being descent.


Here's a story... This case is hypothetical. However, I feel that they're very possible. So I'd like you to read through these cases and share your thoughts on this subject. Perhaps hearing your own experiences may be useful to someone else.

 A popular agency offered many teaching positions in a Middle Eastern country (not Saudi Arabia). They even conduct a written test which they called an IQ test. But in reality, this was one of those personality tests that you can find on-line, for free.

Nearly all teachers were selected based on this test. It was rather strange, how one can select teachers without knowing their skill in the subject or without even looking at them.

Subsequently the teachers were told to pay up their advances (a pretty descent amount) to them. At this early stage, the teachers were told to go for their medical tests, submit their passports and get their documents attested by the foreign ministry and the respective embassy. All this meant money. There were people who even borrowed money to carry out these chores. It is a custom for Sri Lankans to sell or pawn some of their belongings to collect cash for such things. Hoping for early departure, some of these people even quit their current jobs. How sad!

The agency denies that they ever requested the teachers to leave their current jobs but they did certainly promise departure within 3 weeks. So what would you expect these folks to do other than quit?

Strangely though, departure within 3 weeks never happened even after 3 months.

A very interesting thing happened during the group interview. Yes, that's what I would like to call it. One of the senior agency staff made a presentation addressing a group of about 50 prospective employees. He said what he wanted to say, and then opened for questions. This is when hell broke out.

Some people asked him the wrong questions (at least that's what he may have felt). Here are some of these questions...

  1. Where do we land in that country and who's going to receive us? Answer: I'll check and let you know.
  2. What is my salary? Answer: I'll check and let you know.
  3. What is my visa category - is it teacher or labourer? Answer: I'll check and let you know. And it doesn't matter.
Like this, there were many questions that brought out the captain-cool-fool "I don't know" answers... In response,  one clever chap who couldn't keep his mouth shut said that if it weren't for the name and fame of the agency, he'd have thought it was a fake or hoax. This got the senior speaker angry.

And now it was filtering time. The speaker requested the names of these interrogators and guess what - yes, he chopped them off... He didn't want any trouble.

Coming back to the ones who were selected... Some months had gone by but the selected people weren't gone yet...

And then it was the day they all waited for... Nope, not the day to go. Rather it was the day to stay! Yes, these selected people now were told that due to a visa issue or something like it, they weren't going.

Apparently, another person was told that the agency discovered that these vacancies never really existed!

Another story was that the overseas recruiter didn't exist in reality.

What now? Will anyone take action against the overseas recruiter (if they really exist)? Will anyone bring the agency to justice? Is this the only case of its kind? Will the agency repeat this? We do not know!

The above is untrue and is only a story, full-stop.

Do you have real story to share? Please comment and share your thoughts. Someone may be helped.

Monday 12 March 2012

Free Introduction to programming with Pascal

Have you ever wanted to check out what the world of programming is like? Have you ever had the thought of a career as a programmer or developer?

Then I feel you'll like this class - it's online, it's FREE, it's live - not a recorded video; so you may ask me any question during the presentation.

If you're reading this, you're probably interested in learning about programming. All you have to do is click the link below and fill in the form with your details. And expect a mail from me.

Click here to get invited to the FREE training session.


See you soon!

Friday 21 May 2010

Online Job scams/scandals - Please verify and confirm in your territory.

I'd like to bring to the attention of EVERYONE OUT THERE about a possible scam that spans the world!


In summary, they are:
URL: www.cyberonlinejobs.net
Concept / Theme: Collect money, promising work (from home).

How this drew my attention:
They've been advertising on my site - www.bravoclassifieds.com - under different user names and often with an address linkning to Australia. I never really checked to see if they were valid or genuine.

Here's why I think they're fake:

1. Often the (sign-up) addresses contain cities in Pakistan or India, with the country identified as Australia.

2. In two occasions, I mailed the advertiser back, and requested them to change their details. They never did it.

3. The ads they post vary. Sometimes selling car parts, sometimes offering money-making schemes. They always point to the same link. In certain cases, it's just a forwarded (click-through) link. These ads are still on bravoclassifieds.com for your reference but I'll be pulling them down soon.

4. They've identified several contact 'persons' and locations as franchisees. I checked out the ones in Sri Lanka. One of them is a leading school in Colombo and they probably don't even know that their name's on their site. The other is a popular star-class hotel in the capital city. The strange thing is that both are different locations and the email addresses are cloaked to lead to the same (i.e., school) email address.

Their URL showing franchisee contact details: http://www.cyberonlinejobs.net/asia.asp


Look at the email addresses. Don't click them. Just place the mouse pointer over them. See how they refer to the same location!

5. Finally, they ask for membership fees and monthly fees to 'buy' work!. This is in no way allowed in Sri Lanka.  Some time back, some scammers from India came to Sri Lanka and played out the Sri Lankans before they vanished with a mighty some of money with their 'SEAGUL' work-from-home scheme.


So, I don't have any positive report about these people (perhaps it's one person).

Spread the word and stay alert!

M.I.Z. Khalid
Teacher, Solutions developer

PS: If anyone of you readers have something to say about this scheme/scam, please post your thoughts here. Please be genuine/honest. You're doing the world a favour.

Wednesday 3 March 2010

MS-Windows - You can get HACKED for hitting F1

His everyone... This is an alert aimed at all WINDOWS - Internet Explorer users. In short, this is the message:

If you are running Internet Explorer, watch out for any pop-up messages that request you to hit F1. This is reported to be a hack attempt by the website trying to take control of your computer.

For more information, visit this link:

Full Story

Happy computing!

Wednesday 18 November 2009

Edi Al Adha (Hajj festival) 2009

First, the facts:

Eid-Al-Adha (The celebration of the Hajj festival) is scheduled for Friday the 27th of November, 2009, Insha Allah. Yes, I'm referring to the DAY AFTER ARAFAH.

Based on the sighting of the new moon (crescent) of Dhul-Hijjah (or the Month of Hajj), the Saudi Arabian government has reported that, today, Wednesday the 18th of November, 2009 is the FIRST day of hajj. And as such, the day of Arafah is fixed for the 26th Thursday.

It is on this day that those who are NOT on hajj (i.e., the pilgrimage) will observe an optional fast. And the people around the world (i.e., those who are NOT on hajj), will celebrate the Eid with a morning prayer on the 27th.

And now to the problem...

It is rather unfortunate that despite all the information about the sighting of the new moon, some people try to look for it in their own locality. As a result of this ignorant act, they miss the correct day of Hajj. It is common in countries like Sri Lanka that people tend to practise the Eid "a day after the actual Eid" and no one seems to notice the issue.

Well, at least some of us are trying to do it the right way, and I hope those of you who read this will also agree with me that Eid should be on one ONE day across the world.

More on the Eid can be found here.

Eid Mubarak!