Working in a world-renowned ISP company had me develop a habit of incorporating Internet in my daily system. For the past 4 years, Internet became a way of life for me. My typical working day starts in accessing emails and reading the news.

Last December 18, 2007 as I checked on the headlines, I was able to read a very disturbing story about a who were sent to prison due to slavery. As we all knew, slavery is a social issue even earlier than the 1800s. Although there were resolutions even Laws and pacts aimed at totally eradicating the issue, still, we heard and read some news proving that slavery is a in the society.

With regard to this matter, Mahender Murlidhar and wife were charged with 12-counts of slavery and were sentenced to prison and may face up to 40 years in prison unless considered. How? Reports indicate this couple abused their housekeepers Enung and Samirah (both are Indonesians) and the couple's physical abuses resulted to multiple psychological tests and evaluation to date.

Upon reading this news, I was reminded of my researches about women slavery. My heart pours to these two women who left their families behind to earn a living but ended up facing tortures in the hands of their bosses. How sad this story is and mind you, there are hundreds of people living in the same fate and these people's concerns and grievances are yet discovered or heard about.

To lighten up my day's mood (I started reading a sad news after all), I clicked on the TMZ news for entertainment. What do you know! I ended up reading about Kanye West's mom, Donda who died last month due to heart attack. Who wouldn't be carried away with Kanye's tribute to his mom during his performance in the American Music Awards?

It's annoying to know that this woman's life could have been at least saved if the 911 caller listened fervently to the 911 dispatcher's instruction. I've listened to the 911 tape posted in TMZ and all I can say is that I was sorry because those women who intended to help Donda failed to listen carefully to the dispatcher's instructions. 8 minutes is too long to not listen to someone who's giving you instruction how to do first aid acts to a victim. It was a loss really.

Lesson for the day: Listen with all your Heart

These stories I've read today signify the importance of effectively listening with all your heart. For the Sabhnani couples, had they listened to the call of humanity, do you think they'll end up abusing those two housekeepers? I don't think so. We all know that hurting someone, physically and emotionally, is something that's not innate, something that's not incorporated within our system. Unless you loved hurting other people, listening to the golden rule "do unto others what you want them do unto you" will prevent you from abusing others.

The Donda West story is about listening, focusing and following instructions on how you can save a life. In situations where stress level is at its peak and life is at stake, your 100% attention is needed. And I mean not just passive listening, but hearing effectively.

So listening is everything that will prevent us from meeting dangers or even putting our lives at risk. Listening with all your heart is empathy. Listening will help you understand other people's sentiments. Listening will prevent you from abusing others' rights, do more for the benefit of the greater good. I've read a good article about listening effectively. If you wish to receive the same benefits as I did, you can browse through the pages of Google's articles about effective listening, tips that you need to be an effective individual of empathy.

Listening helped me write this post because I listened to the unwritten message between these articles--focusing on the noise of communication, focusing on the distractions and selfishness bring nothing but badness and ill results. Listening is an art in itself. It'll take a good skills set for us to develop this art but we have the time, we have the intentions to enhance this skills right? Do you agree with me?

*Be not a deaf in these world's social noise and illnesses.
*Become an active listener and earn the benefits of being one.
*Trust solely not just your heart because the heart may dictate wrong reasonings.
*Teach your heart to be humble, to empathize then listen to it.
*Reason with your heart, learn the humane ways of reasonings.

If there's a need to pull someone's big ear just for him/her to listen, do it. Who knows, you can save him/her a time, even his/her life. Do we have the same thoughts? Let these be heard and who knows, there are hundreds of me who loves to listen. Share your feelings!

Original post can be read from 24 Hour Paradigm