ANYTHING Butterfly for World Lupus Day

A photography contest is being held in conjunction with World Lupus Day on May 10, 2008. Called “ANYTHING Butterfly Photography Contest“, this photography contest aims to raise public awareness about Lupus, an autoimmune disease that can cause severe damage to body tissues and organs and in aid of Persatuan SLE Malaysia.

The shortlisted photographs will be exhibited from May 10 – May 18, 2008 at 1 Utama, First Floor Oval. For you shutterbugs, there’s no excuse not to enter! If you have a camera, must enter too! All proceeds from this event goes directly to Persatuan SLE Malaysia.

Please download entry form here: https://www.shutterasia.com/files/WLD_EntryForm.pdf

TO ENTER:

Complete the entry form and send it with your donation of RM10 (cheque/money order) payable to “Persatuan SLE Malaysia” to the address:
Persatuan SLE Malaysia, 3rd Floor,
Bangunan Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah,
No. 16, Jalan Utara, 46200
Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

or

Bank in your donation of RM10 to: Persatuan SLE Malaysia, CIMB Account No: 1266-0000638-054 and fax the completed entry form and bank-in slip to fax no: 03-7957 0407. You may also e-mail them to pslemhq@gmail.com if you prefer.

Contest Form Submission Period runs from May 1st – 7th.

Photos must be submitted by May 8th.

Photo exhibition of winners will run from May 10th – 18th in 1 Utama First Floor Oval.

For more information and terms & conditions please click here.

First Prize:

Nikon D60 DSLR Camera with kit valued at RM 2,588

Second Prize:

Nikon D40x DSLR Camera with kit valued at RM 1,888

Third Prize:

Coolpix P5100 camera valued at RM 1,048

Five Merit Prizes:

Nikon CF Sprint IV binoculars valued at RM 198 each

Fifteen Consolation Prizes

Organised by Shutter Asia and generously supported by Nikon, 1 Utama Community Corner, Epson Trading, Akitiara Corporation, Grand Prix, Pumpkin Design, EventsXpert, Tung Colour Separation, Nuffnang and Frank & Francois Communications, this contest aims to unite everyone with a camera (be it a professional DSLR, compact camera or camera phone) to raise funds for Persatuan SLE Malaysia and also heighten the profile of Lupus disease.

Don’t let your photography talents go to waste!

World Lupus Day ads are finally up on Nuffnang, Asia’s largest blog advertising network. Thank you Nuffnang team! (You can see the ad on the right of my blog). Some of you who are bloggers may be affiliated with Nuffnang and we gently urge you to go to your Nuffnang dashboard, then Blog Manager and change your Ad Preference to “Show Charity Ads”. This only means that the charity ad banner will appear if you have no paid ad banners at the moment.

World Lupus Day

ANYTHING Butterfly is the first of many pro-bono projects under KimKomm and I want to thank all the sponsors for making this possible. I admit, when I picked this project up, I had very little understanding about Lupus and I did not know of anyone with the condition. Only when I’ve started to spread the word about this event that I’ve discovered that I have friends who are living with Lupus, whether affecting them directly or their loved ones. I’m really honoured to be part of this event and hopefully more people will know about this illness after.

This is a month of social faux pas.

I’ll probably get even more flak for writing this but I have to get this off my chest.

This month is really a bad time for people who are not voting. Day in, day out, they’re being bombarded with questions from friends, family and acquaintances on whether they’re voting or not, whether they have registered to vote, which party they’re crossing for and many other politically related questions.

Being a person who has not registered or intend to vote this year, I feel that these questions are starting to become a little offensive. Just because you have filled out some forms at the post office and “exercised your democratic right”, doesn’t make you fit enough to chastise and insult those who have chosen not to do so. Do you even know these people? Do you even understand what goes through the minds of these people who have chosen not to vote? So stop making assumptions and leave them in peace. Leave me in peace for goodness sake.

I can’t help but feel that lately, the left wing has sort of become the trendiest club in town. Everyone wants to be a left winger. People who can’t even tell who is the current Prime Minister is a friggin left winger. Left wingers will keep the government in check…yay, we’re better than everyone else. Well, piss off.

Someone told me that I shouldn’t complain about the government if I don’t intend to vote. Hey, I absolutely agree with that but you know where does that put me at? It seems that I can’t complain about anything at all, because EVERYTHING bad is caused by the government. Wah roti canai so expensive…..it’s the government! Tiu my client pay so late….it’s the government! Urgh, my period so pain this month….it’s the government! So first they insist that I have to exercise my democratic right, then they take away my right to complain whatever the hell I want? That’s armchair left wingers for you.

I understand that some of you may be very passionate about the political situation in this country and would like nothing better than to convince someone to vote and make a change bla bla bla. I understand that because I also understand that politics determine almost every aspect of our social and economic growth. But I also understand that there are some of us, the cynics, the paranoids, the self-preservationists, the ignorant, the fence-sitters, the i-dont-give-a-flying-f*-am-leaving-this-gawdamn-countrys, heck even the lazyasses don’t sit very well with the idea of voting.

Seriously, stop it already. Enough of the “one vote also makes a difference” story, the check and balance story, the conspiracy theories and all those other yap yappity yap that I’ve heard for the hundredth million times. I’m not stupid and so stop implying I am before you even care to listen to MY story.

The thing is, I don’t even feel like telling you. Why would I jam my opinions and beliefs down your throat when I expect the same from you? So yeah, give me and other like-minded people a break.

In my opinion, it’s already suffice to ask “What do you think of the coming elections?”.

If you’re faced with the “I don’t like to talk about it…lets talk about other stuff”, don’t be a stupid shit and asked why. Just stop the nonsense, give someone his or her privacy and talk about something else.

On the other hand, if that someone responded with an enthusiastic analysis of the voting system, well good on you!