A lot of people asked: " How did you spend your Christmas?"
Well, for me this year, I didn't really celebrate it in "bigger" scale, neither had any fancy dinners or lunches, but rather just spend some a quiet evening at home during Christmas eve and also traveled to Ipoh as the "acting" Santa. hehe...
Anyhow, I did finish a book from Stieg Larsson during the Christmas weekend! It's the first book of Millenium Trilogy - The girl with the dragon Tattoo.
picture courtesy of wikipedia
The book is generally a thriller fiction, took place in Sweden during winter and summer time. It started with 3 different stories about three different people in the beginning, then it ended with these three people had their stories cross linked with one another's. It's about a journalist-Mikael Blomkvist, a genuis hacker who was a sexual victim- Lisbeth Salander, and Hendrik Vanger-CEO of Vanger Enterprises.
Mikael lost his libel case of damaging the reputation of a billionaire Wennerstrom. He had the solid proof of the billionaire's wrong doings, but because of his carelessness, he fell into a trap of publishing another fake evidence together with the real evidence. He wanted to fight back and he retreated to Hedeby working for Henrik Vanger under his invitation and employment to solve a mysterious case in the Vanger family while gathering more info on Wennerstorm.
Henrik lost a great-niece that was very close to him, Harriet 40 years ago but he still received a pressed flower frame every year during his birthday, which was sent as the last gift by Harriet before her disappearance. Harriet's disappearance intrigued Henrik a lot and he had been spending the past 40 years investigating and looking for Harriet, refusing to believe that she was already dead.
And when Mikael was researching the case for Henrik, he came across some clues that were not discovered in 40 years. Soon, he came across Lisbeth and her great gift was soon discovered by him. He requested for her help and she agreed. Together two of them discovered a great truth about the Vanger's family and also Harriet's disappearance.
The whole story was full of twists and suspenses, and the author wrote it with simplicity yet breathtaking story line. Brilliantly written, as one of the reviewers said.
Food for thought
Even though it was a fiction, but the author brought forward a great truth in today's society. There are countless girls or even boys being sexually violated nowadays and the numbers are not decreasing as the days go by. Everyone in the society plays a role in preventing all these cases, as well as helping the victims to stand on their feet again. But how much have we done? Or do we even know all these cases exist? Do we even bother about it? It's time to look at it in a different way.
All these victims are most of time ignored and neglected as they tend to keep quiet about their experiences. Some they get over it and start a new life, but most of them fail to do so and they continue to live in the dark and rejected world of their own. and undeniably, some of them are blessed with great gifts but because of their miserable experiences, they hide it and sometimes misuse it.
So, do you know anyone personally that has become the victim of sexual violence? Have you done anything about it yet? :)
