Ana, Ani & her family are on the way to the airport from the Mandarin. They've been here since last week -- 10 days. I wanted to send them off, but they decided it was best to arrange with the hotel limo to take them to KL Sentral for the fast KLIA train.
At the very least I wanted to send them off at the hotel, but Raziq's fever had gotten worst during the night and we couldn't sleep worrying and monitoring his temperature. So, I didn't even hear the alarm going off at 6.30.
Minang is 'Minangkabau', a clan in Sumatra. The clan has a symbiotic relationship with the buffalo, or 'kerbau' in Malay or 'korobau' or 'kobau' in the Minang dialect. 'Minangkabau' is derived from 'menang kerbau' -- win buffalo. The Sumatran clans pitch their buffalos against each other, and the Minangs have the reputation of having the fastest buffalos in Sumatra. This blog isn't much use to anyone else though. There are no revelations and no discussions -- just a Minang's folly.
Saturday, April 22, 2006
My colour is Brown! What a revelation, and I thought I'm a Blue kinda guy.
Take a test and be amused:
Your true color is Brown!
What's Your True Color?
Brought to you by Tickle
Take a test and be amused:
Your true color is Brown!
What's Your True Color?
Brought to you by Tickle
Friday, April 21, 2006
We are in Malaysia, enjoying the comforts of home and of a nation that is relatively wealthy and developed. There are no wars being fought around the corner and when we go out to work, for a meal, a drink or to visit friends and relatives, we are almost assured that we will return in one piece. If there is anything that will kill or maim us, it will be the traffic -- it wouldn't be a bullet, stray or aimed from an insurgent, army or mercenary.
We could be caught in a crossfire between criminals and the police, or an armed robber could kill or injure us or a disease would strike us dead. But it wouldn't be from a bullet from a war that happens around us everyday.
We, being so far away, have no inkling of what people go through in Palestine, Iraq (http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2006/04/20/landing-at-the-iraqi-blogodrome-10/#more-9307) and the other parts of the Muslim world, and we sometimes (nay, all the time) forget to give our thanks to God for our good luck. We must breathe Syukur Alhamdulillah with every breath because Allah swt has blessed us with such great fortunes. We must breathe Al Fatihah to all the Muslims who are suffering and dying because the West believe our religion is evil. And we must pray also for non-Muslims who have suffered from the violence that have been perpetrated against them by people who have hijacked our religion.
But what do we concern ourselves with in this beloved land? We argue if our country is an Islamic nation. We quarrel about whether it's OK or not OK to wear a headscarf after the Muslim fashion, or if in cleansing ourselves for prayer, whether it's haram that we washed our face 5 times instead of 3.
We are dead worried if eating with chopsticks is haram. We have become riduculous in our pettiness. Maybe it's because we have been living such a good life, that we can't see the spirit of Islam, nor its substance -- only its form. So our Imams wear the jubbah when a 'baju melayu' would suffice.
We could be caught in a crossfire between criminals and the police, or an armed robber could kill or injure us or a disease would strike us dead. But it wouldn't be from a bullet from a war that happens around us everyday.
We, being so far away, have no inkling of what people go through in Palestine, Iraq (http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2006/04/20/landing-at-the-iraqi-blogodrome-10/#more-9307) and the other parts of the Muslim world, and we sometimes (nay, all the time) forget to give our thanks to God for our good luck. We must breathe Syukur Alhamdulillah with every breath because Allah swt has blessed us with such great fortunes. We must breathe Al Fatihah to all the Muslims who are suffering and dying because the West believe our religion is evil. And we must pray also for non-Muslims who have suffered from the violence that have been perpetrated against them by people who have hijacked our religion.
But what do we concern ourselves with in this beloved land? We argue if our country is an Islamic nation. We quarrel about whether it's OK or not OK to wear a headscarf after the Muslim fashion, or if in cleansing ourselves for prayer, whether it's haram that we washed our face 5 times instead of 3.
We are dead worried if eating with chopsticks is haram. We have become riduculous in our pettiness. Maybe it's because we have been living such a good life, that we can't see the spirit of Islam, nor its substance -- only its form. So our Imams wear the jubbah when a 'baju melayu' would suffice.
I wonder what this means:
"My search for answers on Mak Yong and the tarian istana brought me to the terrains of post-structuralist theories of language and symbolic power and the role of art in the development or retardation of human consciousness. Whether one watches Mak Yong, Mawi (photo) or M Daud Kilau, or listens to Led Zeppelin or Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, the impact of mental colonisation can be explained. "
Taken from "Who does Mak Yong serve?" by Azly Rahman in Malaysiakini.com (http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/49539)
"My search for answers on Mak Yong and the tarian istana brought me to the terrains of post-structuralist theories of language and symbolic power and the role of art in the development or retardation of human consciousness. Whether one watches Mak Yong, Mawi (photo) or M Daud Kilau, or listens to Led Zeppelin or Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, the impact of mental colonisation can be explained. "
Taken from "Who does Mak Yong serve?" by Azly Rahman in Malaysiakini.com (http://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/49539)
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Read through some damn interesting blogs today. Couldn't do much else -- mind and body feeling rather sluggish and still can't get over Azhar passing away...still can't get over the feeling of utter vulnerability ... when is it going to be my turn to go ... and I have children so young? And I haven't made good. I haven't paid for the wrongs I've done to my parents and my kids...
The blogs:
http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=2707&popup_delayed=1 (Amazing interesting read)
http://freeexpressionasia.wordpress.com/2006/04/19/sheila-coronels-keynote-address/ (Sheila Coronel's address at Free Expression Asia)
The blogs:
http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=2707&popup_delayed=1 (Amazing interesting read)
http://freeexpressionasia.wordpress.com/2006/04/19/sheila-coronels-keynote-address/ (Sheila Coronel's address at Free Expression Asia)
Azhar Shaari passed away on Tuesday. Hafidz told me. He couldn't have been much older than I, maybe just 4 years older.
But I don't know the cause. I called Sulik and he was on the way to Kuala Kangsar where they'll take the body for burial. Sulik said that he didn't know either. Just that Azhar complained of tummy ache, collapsed and died.
I feel so sad for the parents, both still alive and having to bury two of their children, Yan just 9 years ago and now Azhar.
Parents shouldn't have to bury their children, but so many do and I'm so afraid.
Suddenly I feel the vulnerability.
But I don't know the cause. I called Sulik and he was on the way to Kuala Kangsar where they'll take the body for burial. Sulik said that he didn't know either. Just that Azhar complained of tummy ache, collapsed and died.
I feel so sad for the parents, both still alive and having to bury two of their children, Yan just 9 years ago and now Azhar.
Parents shouldn't have to bury their children, but so many do and I'm so afraid.
Suddenly I feel the vulnerability.
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
No, I am not an apostate
Many of my friends who have access to this blog thought that I was turning apostate in reading my 'It must be nice to be Christian' post on March 25.
Of course I have no intention of adopting Christianity, because I believe that Islam is the right and most complete religion.
But because it is so complete, it is difficult to understand. It is indeed a weighty religion to understand and to follow, made worst by pre-Islamic cultural practices of peoples purporting to be Muslims in so many parts of the world. Which are Islamic requirements and which are cultural practises of various races who've embraced Islam over the centuries, are mixed in a quagmire of interpretations.
The more one goes into it, the more confusing it gets. So it is best that religion remains religion, culture remains culture and politics remains politics. Easy if only Islam isn't also a way of life.
But am I Muslim? Yes I am...culturally.
Many of my friends who have access to this blog thought that I was turning apostate in reading my 'It must be nice to be Christian' post on March 25.
Of course I have no intention of adopting Christianity, because I believe that Islam is the right and most complete religion.
But because it is so complete, it is difficult to understand. It is indeed a weighty religion to understand and to follow, made worst by pre-Islamic cultural practices of peoples purporting to be Muslims in so many parts of the world. Which are Islamic requirements and which are cultural practises of various races who've embraced Islam over the centuries, are mixed in a quagmire of interpretations.
The more one goes into it, the more confusing it gets. So it is best that religion remains religion, culture remains culture and politics remains politics. Easy if only Islam isn't also a way of life.
But am I Muslim? Yes I am...culturally.