When I first came across this quotation by mary anne radmacher, I could really relate it to the story of Anne in the recent Bersih 2.0 (9 July 2011) in Malaysia. whom in the words of Charlotte Hew “… her spirit, passion and dedication put mine to shame.” I believe the picture alone speaks volume and there isn’t much else I could say to eloquently describe the courageous act of Anne. No matter how much the Malaysia’s authority had denied, on National TV, the firing of tear gas at the protesters and into the Tung Shin hospital, the truth will always prevail! 709 was a day where we saw Malaysians all over the world united as in a single voice to call for electoral reforms.

Below was the story of Anne as told by Charlotte, posted with permission from her; pardon me that I took this long to put this up. As much as Symphony of Love is a site focus on love, peace and inspiration, injustice must be brought into the light and shown to the world.

Anne, from setapak, took a bus ride down to KL, ALONE, in support of the rally. she was stopped 4 times, being asked her IC, and questioned by the police on why she’s wearing yellow. “why can’t I wear yellow?” was her reply.

she didn’t know what time the rally was scheduled to start, she didn’t know where, she has no one with her; all she knew was to get down to KL, and stand for what she believes in.

the first thing she asked when she sat on our table, “what are you guys doing here?”

Anne teaches English in government schools for about 35 years (if i remember correctly). but her passion is really singing and dancing; and what she values most in her life now is freedom.

Anne has rallied in bersih 2007. she was disappointed as to why no one else was wearing yellow that day. we said chill lah.. that’s cuz if we do, we’d be stopped by the cops even before we get the chance to enter KL. “it’s so sad.. it’s so sad that the police are treating our rakyats like these.”

“When you come to rallies, there’s a spirit of unity… something i cannot describe… when everyone is united for a cause. you don’t even get this sort of unity in church.”

She left me with a question that still resides in my heart. now may i impose on you to think about it. “Why do we have to feel so scared (and threatened) in our own home land.. and by own countrymen?”

5 Taiwanese, average age 81

One has hearing problem

One has cancer

Three have heart disease

Everyone has degenerative arthritis

6 months of preparation

Travelling for 13 days around Taiwan

1139 kilometers

From north to south

From night to day

For one Simple reason

What do we live for?

Dream

For ordinary people with extraordinary dream!

Dream Rangers

_________________

How do you usually react whenever someone tells you that it is impossible to achieve something? It has been a while since someone has said that to me with absolute certainty; it was as if his fate had been cast in stone and nothing could be done to change it. Fortunately, I was not prepared to give up on him yet. I asked him, “How hard are you willing to work? Are you willing to go through the 10,000 hours?”

I first chanced upon this 10,000-hour rule from Malcolm Gladwell’s book ‘Outliers’ where a comparison was made of the hours of practice for violinists between elite performers, merely good students and future music teachers. It was found,

“… by the age of twenty, the elite performers had each totaled ten thousand hours of practice where else by contrast, the merely good students had totaled eight thousand hours, and the future music teachers had totaled just over four thousand hours.“

Similar pattern was observed between amateur pianists and professional pianists. Then came the idea that could there be a critical minimum level of practice for excellence? From the book, researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: ten thousand hours. ” The emerging picture from studies is that ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world class expert – in anything,” writes the neurologist Daniel Levitin.

It was stated in the book that there is not a case found yet which true world class expertise was accomplished in less time. The question now is, “Are we willing to go through the 10,000-hour rule to become an expert in what we want to do?” Maybe we could argue that we are not aiming to become an expert in a particular field, like to be a professional golfer, to be a renown mathematician, to be a world class pianist etc, so we need not go through the 10,000-hour rule. Indeed, one doesn’t have to go through that many hours of practice if one just takes playing the piano as a hobby.

However, if we do want to be good in golf, then we must practice more. As the saying goes, “Practice makes perfect.” I do not agree with that actually but I do believe that practice makes better; with practice, we will surely get better with what we are doing. If I want to be better in golf and to enjoy the game more, then I just have to play more often and practice more. The next time before we say with absolute certainty that it is impossible for me to be good in golf or in anything we want to be, we must first ask ourselves, if we are willing to go through at least part of the 10,000 hours to be better.

Perhaps we could also argue, “Professional golfer, world class musician etc, they were all born with special talent and ability to be good in what they are doing!” Quoting something from Albert Einstein, “Genius is 1% talent and 99% percent hard work.” Whether we like it or not, that is the cold hard fact; even if we were born with a special talent, but if we do not develop it with practice and hard work, then we would amount to nothing.