Spare some time for a prayer, thankyou

First it was my grandmother. Now 4 months later, after spending two weeks in and out of the ICU, it's my grandfather's turn. Two grandparents in the space of less than half a year. *Sigh*

And why is it that things have to happen while I'm away? Everyone just keeps keeping things from you because they don't want you to worry. He actually passed away on Wed but it was only today that they finally told me. It's such a bad feeling to be unable to be there during their last moments, to pay my last respects. The funeral is due to start later today according to M'sian time and I only wish I could be there... Guess I can only support in prayer. He hasn't accepted Christ as his saviour so it'll be much appreciated if each of you helps pray for his salvation.

Dear God, please let his suffering end with death. Save his soul, redeem him o' Lord. Let him know peace. Hear our prayers Lord. We surrender him into your hands. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

Our God is a loving God, a patient God and merciful God.

Ask and you shall receive,
Seek and you will find,
Knock and the door shall be opened.

In memory of Nian Ning: Petition for safer bus rides

As a tribute to Nian Ning and the other two who died in the recent bus accident, there will be no story/art/personal updates for the next few weeks. Instead I'd like to focus on helping out the victims' families by spreading the news about the petition they set up. Please support it. Thank you.

Excerpt from Bus Crash No More, a site set up by Nian Ning's loved ones.

We, the concerned youths of Malaysia express appalled anger towards the Slim River Bus Crash incident that claimed the life of Lee Nian Ning, Mohd. Zailani and Pang Boon Eng on the 25^th of January 2008. This is not the first time that such an incident has occurred. Despite numerous complaints and public uproar in the past, incidents like this continue to occur. It was reported that the driver’s company had 13 summonses on that bus itself. We find it unacceptable that such a company could have operated that vehicle on the road.

What are the explanations?

Hundreds of thousands of university students just like Nian Ning and us rely on such public transport to travel back home. A human life should not be taken lightly.

How could a vehicle with 13 summonses be free on the roads and not be held by the authorities?

We, the following, hereby demand that the relevant authorities set up a committee consisting of road safety experts and representatives from relevant public bodies to conduct a thorough study to find effective solutions to ensure that mistakes like this do not occur again in the future.

We will not be quiet until we see it in the media that satisfactory measures have been taken.

To sign the petition,

please click here

and submit your FULL NAME(as in IC. Please don't use your nicknames or initials.) and e-mail. It will be considered one e-signature upon completion.

Alternatively, please send your FULL NAME and IC NUMBER to buscrashnomore@gmail.com.

Please do not leave initials or nicknames, only full name is accepted.

We thank you for your co-operation. Let us pray for those who have died to make way for change and keep our fingers crossed that someone, anyone will hear us and enforce that change.


Please put this in forums, bulletins, emails, blogs.....everywhere. We need all the support we can get. This is for you as well.

RIP Nian Ning

Lee Nian Ning, a fellow Penangite, passed away in a tragic bus accident a few days ago. She was at the peak of her life, a bright shining future ahead of her but all of these were robbed away in just seconds. The bus she was in hit a divider and the MPV behind, unable to stop in time, crashed into the back of the bus (More info).

The bus driver was later on found to have 13 outstanding summonses dating back as far as 2000 and a witness told the Berita Harian that the driver was speeding while sending text messages just before the accident happened!

How the heck can anyone with so many summonses not have their driver's licence revoked? For such a looooong period of time too! Plus they had TWO warrants of arrest for him!! And what has our police force been doing all this time? Writing summonses for illegal parking in housing estates, university/college areas and coffee shop areas. Catching people for not wearing seatbelts. The list goes on.... I'm not saying that any of the above are right or that the police shouldn't be catching those people. All I'm saying is that instead, they ought to concentrate on catching repeated offenders for speeding, reckless driving and the like. And especially those who hold many lives in their hands each time they get behind the wheel.

Then there's the bus company- Konsortium. Shouldn't they have checked out their potential drivers before hiring them? And considering that their buses make several trips to and fro from various states in the country, shouldn't they make an effort to make sure the buses are in reasonable condition and not break down half-way through the journey? And couldn't they have at least apologized and send condolences to the families involved? Or did they think that if they just kept quiet, the whole fiasco would eventually die down and business would go back to normal-until the next accident at least.

Well, all I know is that Konsortium is now synonymous with Irresponsible and we're all boycotting them. There are so many other affordable buses out there- Plusliner for example.

I mean, who knows when the next accident might be?

I'm sure not gonna stick around and find out.
-scoobz-