Monday 30 July 2012

Butterflies & people in religious and emotional despair by @1MaxMalik #SUFP #goodread

This the review that was originally posted on the Amazon website, unfortunately they're not allowing me to post the links:

"The Butterfly Hunter" by Max Malik 

This book is beautifully written with many passionate descriptions of the people, their senses, language, food and locations. It takes us across several continents on journey in search of right and wrong, faith and extremist, love and corruption.

Normally I read Sci-fi and pop-crime/action/war thrillers. Despite all the deaths and violence "The Butterfly Hunter" is much more of a political religious romantic story that really digs into the souls and thoughts of the characters and provides an understanding for what drives them and others to the extremes, that we're all faced with in real-live today. We get much more of a vivid insight to the minds of extremist masterminds, than the government agencies who are working against them.

Coming from a very save upbringing in the countryside of my native place of Denmark where there was no pressure to join or follow any faith, if at all. The descriptions and quotes from the Quran was very new to me, and more so the whole ideology surrounding it and how its message was used for making terrorists and peace keepers out of the same mould - and not unlike how most other religeous bible and scriptures are used today.

NO! We are made to, even forced to understand and think about the fine line between practising faith and enforcing terror. It is fascinating to follow the conversion of two people; one a white middle class young woman, and the other; a drug dealer, pimp and bad son into something new. Which I (you) the reader had to decide whether one liked or disliked.

And in the end, extremist or not, it turns out that we're all human.



The book can be found on  Amazon here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Butterfly-Hunter-Max-Malik/dp/1908248602/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1343651232&sr=8-1

Disclosure:

If it had not been for chance meeting with the author Max Malik earlier this year, I would never have had the enjoyment of finding his book. He took part in a series of videos to encourage more dialogue.
You can see some of them here:
How Powerful are British Pakistanis? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f215NrXJI9E
Part of the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office competition: Speaking up for Pakistan: voices from the UK:
http://ukinpakistan.fco.gov.uk/en/about-us/working-with-pakistan/SUFP/

Friday 27 July 2012

A true pulling teeth out survey from #tfl, #aegon & #mayor for London

Hopefully this will help you save alot of time + bring a smile to your face.

An open letter to tfl, the Mayor & Aegon in response to their http://www.tfl-olympic-survey.co.uk/ survey email:

Dear tfl,

There should be a law against these kind of stupidity long-winded surveys – this survey is of an epic Kafkaesque proportion!

Aecom and tfl has wasted time that I’ll never get to see again in my lifetime, and that could have been spent better on watching paint dry or the Olympic torch pass by.

Frankly, every single executive within City-hall, Transport For London and Aecom should be forced to take this survey – it is utter nonsense, and will provide plenty of material for stand-up comedians for centuries to come.

Couldn’t John M. Dionisio and his friends at Aecom (who only has one public account: investor relations – so they clearly don’t know how to use a computer at that firm – or they don’t want employees to use email…), could they not just have asked:
What route are you taking on a daily basis?
Will it change because of the Olympics?
And have we done enough to help you get through London?


If there ever was a reason not to ever take a tfl survey again, then this is a good one!!!
Shame on you for wasting other peoples time!

Have a nice weekend & I am actually looking forward to a fabulous Olympic experience!

All the Best
Mads