Y …

I went to Sabah recently in a fit of compulsive self-challenge. Strangely, self-challenge was by coincidence a possible answer to the some of the more recent major issues in our beloved Malaysia.

I don’t think it’s a good idea to expose just what exactly my self-challenge was composed of. Suffice to say that the self-challenge consisted of a test on how resistant was I against a series of segregationist and ethnocentric polemics that has been plaguing our society since we were free of colonial rule and lived in sufficient peace. I wished to see how sturdy was I in going against the immensely strong stream of bigotries and knowledgeable ignorance. I wished to see how courageous was I in trying to stitch a leak with wisdom and impressions. Most importantly, I wished to peek out from beneath the coconut shell of bigger-than-life issues and leap out onto the bigger threats looming all around the little husk. Sabah cities, in my opinion, were good places within convenient reach in which I could observe the surroundings and enforce my willpower.

It was not surprising to see how the peace we had for many years has transformed certain groups of the society into abominations. They were like dogs chasing their shadows or barking at enemies conjured in their own mind. As a Muslim myself, It was saddening to see how we were constantly trained (read: brainwashed) into venting our anger against invisible enemies. In some sermons that I had attended, the community was asked to cast suspicion against ‘enemies, out to destroy us’. True, enemies would always be around somewhere, but were we taught to make enemies? Nay, but we were taught to prepare ourselves for confrontation at all times. Preparing for confrontation was not the same as making enemies. Preparing for confrontation meant that we should be aware of the infallibility of ourselves, that we should train our mind and body for any possible obstacles. Preparation meant arming our mind with beneficial knowledge and wisdom, and our body with beneficial prowess and constitution. Confrontations could mean just about anything; for example, we should confront stupidity with education, and disease with medication and greater hygiene practice. It did not necessarily signified other cultures or communities, but these two examples were the one cited the most in sermons.

The aforementioned paranoia of ‘them against us’ has made us fools afraid of even our own shadows. Thus, when the recent conflict in house of worship placement sparked an idea of offensive profanity among a certain group of people, it was almost a predictable flow of events. This, among other things, seemed to exemplify the fact that we as a community would strike out harshly without exceptions when we are provoked AND when we are provoking. It would not be a good example; it would be only a matter of time before someone else from another community took the same stance against us. When that time comes, only the Devil would be left standing and laughing in the middle of it all. These guys who started the ruckus, they were not prepared at all and they were paranoid to the very core of their faith. Despite their strong faithful looks, they were weak inside, drowning in the pool of segregationist sediment they had accumulated themselves. Even if the majority of us opposed such abject ridiculousness, the world would not see it that way; pretty soon, words would  soon arise that we as a WHOLE supported such unscrupulous deeds, if we did not cut the problem at the root.

Perhaps it was time for us to revive the ascetic-monastic traditions of lore, where people in seclusion sought answers along lonely journeys throughout the wide world. Even if the majority of the Schools now reject monasticism, I found it worthy of thought on why our community shone brightly when such institutions existed, even among the purported excesses and corruptions of the Caliphates. Even in the middle of the Holy Lands conflict, the existence of such institutions has managed to keep a balance even throughout shifting political powers. We did not need to follow the format of Catholic or Buddhist monasticism inclusively; all that matters was for us to commit some time alone reflecting the issues of the world and then discussing the results with fellow monks. Heck, even the Prophet (peace be upon him) gained insights via solace (Arab: khalwat) although that word now usually meant close proximity, a hint at how much attempt has been made towards preventing us to think for ourselves.

The only one who could free you from the chains of dogmatic miasma shackling you to the ground is yourself. God would not help you; you’re just an insignificant flicker in the streams of existence unworthy of even the slightest attention, such that even you being able to live was a merciful act enough from Him. Not unless you’re helping yourself first. Until you actually make an effort to help yourself, divine help did not exist in the first place. Such notions were only one of the many self-motivation behind many of the ancient ascetic orders littering the Muslim Empires, before the succumb of the Assassin Federations against the massive Eastern barbarian hordes and the eventual fall of Muslim grace. Some scholars deemed it philosophically extreme to the point of heresy. I say they had a point. If you always thought that God would help us, like we were often told, then we would be lazy and dependent. A good dose of despair-driven assaults of self-challenges would be good for the continuous sanity of mind.

For me, I was glad to see that I was able to withstand the dogmatic assaults so far. The future would be uncertain, but all I had to do is fight on and keep the brain storm inside me alive .

I’m not usually critical when it comes to the passing of celebrities and the like. But the tale of controversial yet acclaimed writer-cum-film director Yasmin Ahmad, who passed away due to brain haemorrhage yesterday, may be one of a few that’s worth mentioning.

Probably it was just her luck that she passed in the trail of many other celebrities. Michael Jackson passed away this month, and so was Farah Fawcett. I didn’t give them much coverage, since the mainstream media might have more to mention about their life. It is better that I focused on someone much more closer to home and to the citizens, like Yasmin.

Yes, I admit, her films didn’t exactly strike a good tune to many of the hard-liners among the top echelons of the country. Almost all her films displayed concepts and social images that are at odds with many, but are indeed issues worthy of discussion. In ‘Gubra’, for example, religionists had almost veered to the edge of excommunicating her films due to the scene about a Muslim prayer leader patting away a sleeping dog that was sprawling on the road towards a mosque. But in decreeing her stance almost heretical, these hardliners had displayed their own lack of free-will and the lack of the ability to conjoin science and religion as per the request of God himself, when it comes to solving highly critical agenda.

Issue abouts dogs and Muslims had always been a very tough one. There are lots of decrees coming from the religionists when it comes to the relationship between dogs and men. I, however, choose to believe my own judgment based on my observation of the 15,000 years of human animal husbandry. Many experts obviously failed to see why exactly are dogs not allowed to be eaten and to be touched at leisure. Think deep enough, and you can see that without animal husbandry, early civilisation would simply fall apart. We cannot pull heavy burdens like oxen. We cannot have great sense of smell like dogs. We cannot sneak around on pests like cats. Simply put, the importance of respect between human and their animal companions is the reason why it is dictated that some of the animals mentioned in the Book are given a degree of respect and invulnerabilities. That’s why cattles are slaughtered by using techniques so that they would pass on as soon as possible with minimal pain. That is why dogs are not to be eaten and touched at leisure, for they are indeed man’s best friends when it comes to psychological and security support, and so they must be conferred a status befitting their importance. Sadly, traditional traditionists and exegetic experts interpreted the Book in a too-direct ways, thus confusing the way these animal companions should be treated. Remember the verses of the Cave, fellow champions of the faith, and be reminded that God wishes men to implement the Way as a whole, not by implementing one part of the Road and ignoring another. Secularism has affected our religionists just as badly as it did to average Muslims, and this is what Yasmin must have tried to find out when she decided to let public the dog-patting scene. Some people might say that I am making my statements without proof and without acknowledgments of prior references;to them I say that the tendency to follow blindly without giving a chance for your own judgment to come forth and to feel obliged to get acknowledged before having the guts to put on your own ideas are exactly what the Philosophers called taqlid or blind following. Acknowledged ideas rarely gets challenged, yet it is that challenges that will enforce its truth and its relevance to the state of the Community. There are plenty of like-minded ideas generated from just a dog scene in her film, much more than from the total of the other shabby mind-rot local films produced in the last decade. Others films producer should work more to produce mind-boggling films like she did, instead of resorting to quick-bucks generators.

Issues on cultural harmony and relationships between different culture members are portrayed in all her films and advertisement. Again, many hardliners, this time from the political front, claimed that the issues hardly exist and are irrelevant to the current situation. Yes, it does not exist to them, simply because they aren’t there to mingle with the general populace in the first place. It should be noted that while cultural relationship, namely along the racial and religious lines, are in better shape since the fateful events of May 13th 1969, we are currently still experiencing many situations in dire need of attention. Despite what the media said, our cultural soup are getting more clustered and glutinous instead of being more dilute and soluble. More and more children grew up without securing many childhood friends due to their parents’ constant work-place change. Adding into that problem is their lack of childhood friends from diverse cultures due to parents favoring one type of vernacular education over another. To top it all, some parents had even deemed their own country’s education not worthy and decided to send off their still-confused children to another country for high-end education, instantly throwing them into a completely alien environment.

It is an accepted consensus among paediatricians that childhood friends are more often than not life-long friends, and having childhood friends from many different backgrounds of cultures will help them understand the variety the world has to offer, and to be comfortable within the variety. Alienating them from the differences will only help create a highly xenophobic and solitary child, in fear and disgust of anything that looks different. What will happen to the future if these children were to be the leaders? It is better that we enforce a primary education policy that requires all young children of all background to be enrolled in a singular national-level school, no matter what. To make sure that no one, especially politicians and businessmen, tried to go through a loophole and send off their children to somewhere else, ensure these children citizenship only after they finished these primary school education, and revoke the citizenship of any parents that failed to comply by the rules with no exception. These children are free to pursue their secondary education in any forms they like, but by then they would have a similar core mindset despite their subtle differences. There would sure be a lot of people profiteering on these rules by offering fake citizenship papers, but be rest assured that the original products would be much more valuable and much more conscious of the future of the nation than the pirated ones.

Like what the racial comedian Russell Peters said, by the end all of us would likely be beige, instead of black, brown, yellow, white or anything else in between, due to interracial relationships. Inter-racial relationships are relatively common in Malaysia, and Yasmin is quite correct in trying to portray that in her films like ‘Sepet’. As usual, many from the different quarters of importance, namely in the racial and religious sector, tend to frown on such situations. It is highly likely that it was the result of psychological alienation as described in the previous paragraph. However, more often than not, everyone does have a degree of discomfort towards the issue. Challenges will definitely assault the interracial couple from all directions, with faith conversions, family acceptance and public slander being the topmost factors. Relationships between Muslims and non-Muslims seemed to be the hardest among them all, due to the fact that the non-Muslim partner had to convert first before finalizing the marriage, which in turn will bring in even more ruckus in case of a People of the Books partner, which more often than not have the same conversion requirement, resulting in a faith requirement conflicts. Interracial relationship between non-Muslims couple received a lot less trouble, with couples having no trouble even if both partners have different faith; trouble comes mostly from family and legal proceedings in case of marriage problems. However, be rest assured that those who did overcome the challenges will become the bridge to lessen the widening divides between faiths, races, clans and ultimately communities.

Of course, as usual education plays a big part in inter-cultural acceptance. We should have enforced minority languages proficiency classes for all children regardless of races a long time ago. Misunderstanding and distrust comes when we could not understand each other. It sure would not be a huge drain on the budget to ensure that each children understand at least 4 other languages apart from their mother’s tongue; after all, I’m pretty sure that building a golf park which is used by less than 0.5% of our citizens costs 10 times as much. Indonesia had chosen to enforce unity by ensuring that all of its citizens regardless of race would speak only Bahasa Indonesia. Instead of going to that extreme, we should go to the other extreme, by making sure that our children know more languages. By putting in more effort into understanding each other, we can be sure that racial prototypical description will be eliminated little by little, paving the way to a better Community.

I’m pretty sure that she had a lot more stuffs in mind when she passed on. I hope that someone else would be brave enough to take her flag and continue the struggle. In the meanwhile, I’ll offer the Mother of the Book verse in meditation.

“Dude, where’s my car?”

I had particularly foul days in the last two weeks. I presumed that ever since I’ve parted ways with Mr Hanks, I was no longer able to absorb his luck, and thus was driven into jinx-laden adventures as soon as I even dared make a weekend run. Drats!

Today marked a full two weeks since my car got hijacked by God-knows-who outside Mr Hank’s condominium. I’m not sure who else in the right mind will want that piece of sluggish junk, except for scrap metal dealers or illegal parts scavenger. Robbery? I bet if it were used in a robbery, the robbers will get caught as soon as they attempt to run away using the car; the car will require precisely 7 minutes to start up again if it was driven around until the engine was hot enough, because of sludge buildup in the firing chambers. 7 minutes is more than adequate to get yourself cornered, and it’s better to leave it right there. I’ve a hunch that it was carried away using a tow truck in the middle of the night. People noticing the towing (if there’s any) might assume that I was a poor sod missing out his payment and getting the car grabbed by the bank. As if anyone would do their job in the middle of the night, except for criminals of course. Yep, real Grand Theft Auto.

Since I’ve lost my car, I had no choice but to hunt a new one, and that’s where another luckless plight occurred. The recent economic crisis had made banks more wary about giving out loans, and that just made things more crappy. It seemed that all the banks I’ve went to apply for the loan were more than eager to investigate each and every details of my finance-related characteristics. I’ve entertained some of the most… unique… questions regarding my finance. I didn’t even know that my eating habits count into getting loans. No, my uncle isn’t a drug addict. Yes, I am overweight, do you want some of that weight transferred onto your face? The list of questions goes on and on, and none gave a nod to a successful application. On the final straw, I even retorted by asking a bank agent why is it so hard to acknowledge my application. I got a very nice response; “Why don’t you take a bus then?”. Wise guy; I wished to know how many sales he managed to get each month with that kind of sarcasm. I went through the normal cordial retaliation by saying that such attitude is precisely why so many loansharks have great business nowadays. Predictably, my comment was met with either a blank stare or simple ignorance. Thus, I concluded that they don’t want to do business with a seemingly poor sod like me, pulled out RM40K, and publicly announced that no one wants it so I guess I’d better find someone else who does. Fortunately, that trick worked its wonder even at this time, although I didn’t entertain their plea to continue the deal and asked the car sales agent to find someone else. I’m not usually a mean guy, but when others look down on you just because you look like a hobo, you have to do something about it. I managed to find one just in the nick of time. My hefty deposit will probably bring another nuisance into the scene however; the Internal Revenue Service will probably smell a rat, but hey, I got that bunch of papers by tying my tummy everyday. I don’t think they’ll believe that I get that much by eating air 3 days a week and contributing to my uncle’s odd-job construction works, but they shouldn’t be much of a problem hopefully. Besides, there’s a lot of rich businessmen and politicians out there earning billions out of thin air, so one hobo fishing out cash from toilets to buy a local car wouldn’t be worth the attention.

Now that it has been long enough since the car disappeared, I figured that it’s time to pay the insurance provider a visit. Based from Mr Hank’s experience, I knew that there would definitely be problems and lots of strings attached, so I half-predicted that my visit would be slightly unpleasant. And it is, although not as bad as Mr Hank’s experience. The agent questioned me even more questions than the police officer did when I reported the theft. Fortunately, the questions aren’t as far-fetched as my loan application, but slightly more intricate and detailed than expected. Like what the police officer who took in my report said, I should expect an unpleasantly lenient and slow response to my insurance claim process, since my car was already fully paid for, and the financial institution no longer had any rights over  it. Calling up my almost forgotten skills of harassing people, I made an almost periodic and consistent calls to the agent every two days to make sure that my claim forms don’t end up being sediment in a sea of claim forms. Consistent enough for a procrastinating giant like me, I supposed.

Clouds had silver linings, they said. It sure was an electrically-charged stormy cloud for me, but I figured that it was worth looking at the other side of the coin. Since I’ve lost my primary transport to the office, I was left with the choice of either to borrow my dad’s car whenever it wasn’t needed, or take the public transport. I figured that I might as well try the public transport once in a while. Sure, it was crappy and full of people jostling to get some personal space, but it sure beats the agony of having to drive through the traffic-jam- infested roadways of KL, and eliminates the need to pay the toll just to get into yet another congested part of the KL’s highways. I’m fine with going out when everybody’s still snoring, ramming through crowds of half-asleep people, sleeping while standing, multiple transits and walking a good distance to the office. Me and Benjy did all that when we were teens, and we did just fine. Plus, the car has lots of memory associated to it, and since it was gone, I could just forget the past and move on. Past stuffs like the time when I preferred sleeping over to going to a girls’ party, much to the boo-hoo of the guys. Or maybe the time when the car became a sleeping cabin right beside the beach. Hmm, alright, maybe I would hold on to that for the time being. Perhaps I might even consider riding a bicycle along the 45km distance to the office from my house. That would be a feat.

These series of incredibly stinky events served as a divine reminder to tell me that one shouldn’t take things for granted, and be prepared for the worst Murphy could throw at us all the time. Oh, and maybe to consider using public transport as well, to make for a cleaner environment, greener Earth and happier hippies!

Tug of war, new policies and sneeze has become the most recent hot news on the media. Even though they bore no similarity at all, each has excellent chance of affecting the country in indescript ways.

As of today, the tug of war over who would wear the crown of Perak’s Menteri Besar has been concluded, for now. The National Front’s representative has won the appeal over the People’s Coalition’s ousted premier, overriding a previously issued verdict by the High Court declaring the PAS member as the rightful Menteri Besar. I have the (predictable) hunch that this will not be the end of the tug.

Let’s forget the details for now, and head back to the root of the mess. The ruckus started when several of the Coalition’s representative suddenly went independent, creating an imbalance in the administrative power. Thus, with one side having only 3 power difference over the other, the table quickly turned. A sudden and aggressive turn, that is. This culminated into the unilateral declaration of new state premier, expulsion of previous council members, forceful change of speaker and other issues not worth mentioning here. 

In the midst of the mess, perhaps most of us forgot one crucial issue related to terms of language. I understand that being independent political figure means being completely unaffiliated to anybody, being neutral in many sides-involved matter and safe criticization of anything with few repercussions. That doesn’t stop an independent persona befriending others though. But befriending anybody doesn’t mean you’re a part of that somebody, much like us befriending the United States does not mean that we are a U.S.A. colony. From what I observed, our political figures seemed to think just like that. When the independents expressed their loyalty to one of the sides, that particular side unilaterally assumed an increased majority and thus a shift of power. It’s mathematically ridiculous as well, pertaining to computer system design theory; an object class expressed as a friend of another object class HAS the access to the methods of an object, but IS NOT an aggregate or composite of the other class. Trying to do otherwise is a violation of De Morgan’s Law, one of the base rules of mathematics, and mathematics is the universe itself. Even without the mathematics mumbo jumbo, you can be certain that your friends are not certainly outgrowths of your organs that somehow achieved self-awareness, but are independent, free creatures with their own free-will. Thus, independents friendly to a certain side IS NOT a part of that side, and they certainly don’t count toward the numbers of that side. So if the independents are assumed to be a part of that side, they are not independent at all, but rather a part of that side. Calling them independents will be inaccurate by then, and their labels should be changed to reflect their side of the fence.

But, well, since no one likes truth anyway, and truth are a guaranteed way towards life sentence or the such, we’d better leave them to their ruckus. Perhaps there is more than meets the eye in the Perak issue, and I have the feeling that things will get more interesting afterwards.

With new nation premier, comes new policies as well. Issues floating during the reign of the previous premier has proved that our citizens has few patience for philosophical and faith endeavours. Although I am not inclined towards any political figures, I do pity the previous premier for his unfortunately short tenure and his largely ignored exhortations. Issues upon issues rained down upon him like bricks dropped by a negligent construction worker, so much that it probably cracked him open and left him vulnerable to precisely-timed suggestions, such as maybe the one leading to the newly crowned country premier.

Newly issued policies such as private sector liberalisation, more bilateral missions to other countries and the like has hinted at a new form of governance. Whereas the previous leadership focused on spiritual assets, the current leadership now is geared towards operating the nation like a big corporation. This is probably in response to the success of a neighbouring country in doing exactly the same thing. Soon, maybe the ‘board of directors’ will abound, getting their lion share’s of the country’s wealth. The new premier still has time to prove his worth, so let’s see if there is still enough economic cake slices left to us the servants after the VIP guests ate it away. If he indeed is worthy and can contribute to the success of the nation, much like what the 2nd and the 4th premier did, probably few if any will remember the murder conspiracy surrounding him afterwards. Except a certain royal blogger of course.

Now, the H1N1 flu fear has again dealt a brutal blow against the still-ailing world economy. During the SARS outbreak, and Nipah outbreak in our own Malaysia, we are quite adequately prepared for the plague siege. This time however, with the world economy still derailing and many issues still in need of attendance, the swine flu has struck a critical blow, even more devastating than its more deadly predecessor H5N1. 

All blames fell on the unfortunate Mexico, who had amassed more than 70 casualties of the disease before the Mexican government got the words out. It was too late by then however; the flu has found its way out. In the words of the WHO spokesman, there’s no use trying to cull pigs, the natural vector of the virus; in the age of powered flights and sea travels, the airborne virus spread like wildfire throughout the world. The flu spread between nations thousand of miles apart in the span of hours.

It is perhaps surprising for most of the citizens to hear that flu, which can be encountered almost daily in our country during rainy season, is considered a hazard in the news. In the modern age, the common influenza virus is quite weak against common antibiotics, but in the old days, they are just as deadly as cancer. The infamous Spanish Flu claimed thousands of lives in the early 20th century due to lack of proper knowledge against them.

Modern medical discovery has provided a little edge against these invisible assailants, but they are still as mysterious as they were before during their initial discovery in the early 20th century. Back in college, I have been presented with a quite difficult question; is virus alive or not? I got a good mark for at least trying to put forth an anwer, since there is still no definite answer even until now. They are definitely as inert as sand particles when floating around, but once latched to a living cell, they seemed to switch on mysteriously, intelligently seeping into a target host cell and commandeering the cell’s ribosomes to suit the invader’s need. And what else their need is other than to reproduce many copies of themselves using the RNA of the host cell. In computation intelligence term, they are the perfect support vector machine agents in a data world, idling while having no purpose and immediately off to work without requiring supervision once an objective is achieved.

Virus and the recently discovered nano-creatures known as prions, are amazingly simple, consisting of very discrete protein molecules enclosing a thin strand of RNA. They are probably simple enough to be artificially produced in a laboratory; leading to the conspiracy theory stating that viruses are made by men themselves. Conspiracy apart, what is true is that their simplicity allowed them free and fast molecule exchange with almost any other viruses regardless of structure. The swine flu virus and the bird flu virus has the same molecule makeup with only different blueprint. Given a freak chance, both flu strain can swap their components, and with an even freakier chance, the child strain inherits the worst (or best, depending on your view) of the parents’ characteristics. The incredibly virulent swine flu which has long incubation periods and treatable if given time, can swap characteristics with the severely restricted bird flu which has incredibly fast incubation period and severe damage, probably producing an incredibly virulent and severely damaging virus. Let’s hope that the spirit of Mendel sways the inheritance tree and makes the end product a severely restricted virus with treatable effects instead; perhaps that will be the only time when we thank God for a defective product.

Like what H.G.Wells concluded in ‘The War of the Worlds’, even the superior and invincible aliens are brought to their knees (tentacles maybe?) by the seemingly ineffectual microbes. This is a good time to reflect on our effect towards the world, and be reminded that even with our technological glory and mind superiority, we are still apes that run around into the caves whenever a storm loomed ahead. So wash your hands, and avoid sneezing onto other’s faces; who knows, maybe the little critters are floating around, finding a way to have a cellular-level intercourse with your cells.

It’s been long since I’ve written something. Recent events has prompted me to lie low for a while, following a crackdown on the blogging community in search of any article that smelled seditious, however remote. Now that the activities has cooled down somehow, I confided in the fact that authorities react only when triggered as per the proverb ‘terhantuk baru terngadah‘, and resumed my bellow in peace.

The nation now have a new Prime Minister, and with new premier comes new slogans, new ideas and new authority, but mostly still the same old supporters, ministry leaders and bureaucratic problems. Owing to the previous premier’s same initial hope-garnering that were, sadly, mostly dashed, everyone has now taken care not to give hope much. The new slogan, it seems, has the positive attention from all sides of the realpolitik. But all that is for later. For now, there’s a pressing news in grave need of attention from the new government.

With economic regression, comes the return of the flock of mankind to their respective religious organization, and the increase of wise reflections over the economic predicament. Along with that comes the financial-religious parasites, ready to lodge themselves onto unsuspecting victims. All forms of charlatans and bogus mediums are on the rise, reaching out towards the populace in need of financial consolation through divine means. The methods differ along racial and economic market share lines, and do sometimes overlap each other in terms of targets. Among one race, the need for extra money at no effort caused many to disregard their creed and spend ridiculous amount of money into performing even more ridiculous ’sacred’ rituals to make money out of thin air at saints’ tomb. Yet among another race, inability to curb old habits enabled misplaced trust to be placed upon mediums who can guarantee 100% win at casino and 4D, often via a prepaid trust money and dubious rituals. The list of these charlatans who fatten themselves up on the lack of creed of others can almost go on forever during these troubled times. But probably what should be alarming is the list of people that are not charlatans, but rather real practitioners of the dark arcane arts who enjoyed clients wishing for bad luck and misdirected wealth towards their friends and foes. More often than not, the combination of scams and spells can be devastating; owing to the chaos theory of butterfly effect, these acts of crime can only complicate the economic problems of the nation.

The root to all current problems of the world are the lack of understanding towards the similar wisdom of all creeds, regardless of the theocratic differences. No good can be found in trying to point out the theological mistakes of the creeds and exhorting the supremacy of one own’s creed. Each of us walks his/her own way, Ways that are paved with the rules and conditions of one’s specific creed and terminating at one destination. No two person walks the same path, even if the pavement is the same. Unfortunately, we have regressed back so much, it is like a stone age environment in a post-modern setting. Ancient civilisational constraints has been resurrected in the midst of the turmoil.

Back in the old days, people with creed power use it to fulfil their greed, hence the condemnation of lorekeepers and priests who abuses their creed as chronicled in many religious scriptures. After a period of suppression under the Golden Age of Islam and Renaissance, it seemed that the wheel has turned. Once again, priests and clerics rallied one creed against another, and sometimes among themselves. Differentiating each other and taking pride in the supremacy of a creed leads to segregationist mindset. More and more people worry about the unseen afterlife rather than the seen life which is important as a preparation ground for the final destination. Blind obedience is rewarded, while discussion of new ideas and the challenging of old ideas are punished. Ancient ridiculous ideals are slowly revived and revered back, most often cited as the image of certain creeds themselves.

In the bleak miasma of this new form of misguided theocracy, which thrives well on the many plagues of civilisation such as the current economic crisis, our only hope is to stay strong-willed and ever resourceful. Troubled times require more efforts than anything else; prayers alone won’t suffice. Our cavemen ancestors and the desert nomads of the 6th CE probably went through a massive, sacrificial paradigm shift to free themselves. We’ll need that same drive to shift the Balance as well, and make this world better.

In recent weeks, the severity of political, economical and social issues in Malaysia has escalated to a record high, seeing scenario which has not been seen since before the Independence. Owing much to many current issues reverberating around the country, this may make some ordinary individuals, such as myself, to wonder; why the ruckus?

Consider the recent accusation on the Selangor MB over abuse of state fund for Eidil Adha beef giveaway, a case susceptible for bribery. I am not inclined to side over any side of the fence, but any individuals siding with either side of the coin can find many things to ponder. For an instance, the beef was a Qurban gift to the local populace, with its cost drafted from the state fund. In other words, it was a state treating its citizen to a share of a meal via a mean of religious activity. I could not help but wonder, if treating hungry or deserving citizens is a crime, what about donation from federal fund into, let say, golf tournament? 95% of the people I know, have not the slightest idea what golf is, nor do they have the equipments or the proper club membership? Golf tournaments are attended by only the top of the cream in the society of Malaysia, who lived in housing estates fit for a king and fit for hundreds of people as well. Probably it’s better to donate it for football, which can be said as the general populace’s sport. Maybe the donation can improve the quality of our football scene, which has deteriorated to a point of being a laughing stock. All in all, I would say food before anything else, as hungry people care not how many gold and silver they are showered with.

The retake of Perak via a means of Constitutional loophole is a cause for rethinking over the sovereignty of the state sultans, their canonical laws and the behavior of their subjects. It was told by the mainstream media that due to unfavorable state of the Menteri Besar owing to the defection of several assemblymen, the current Menteri Besar has lost the confidence of the state and must stand down to give way for a new Menteri Besar. Naturally resisting to such move against him, the Perak MB opted not to stand down until the case is properly discussed in court. But in a seemingly hurried reaction, a new MB was elected and the previous high assembly was disbanded in a speedy takeover by the new majority-owning party. That was the point from where all the profanities, callous remarks and nefarious deeds were launched against the sovereignty from all sides. I found out later that similar events had happened before, as in the event involving the late father of the a previous Perak MB, with the results favoring the majority government at that time. The same incident happened with all the same variables, same conditions and same indictment but strangely, a completely different result came out. These facts from the history and the conspiracy theory revolving around the party taking over the helm of the state governance leaves many questions yet to be answered. Yet, the same kind of headwinds echoed throughout the nation, regardless of the political dogma they may have originated from; solution, not skirmish. Squabbles and public televised insults are not the answer the citizens hoped for. The ‘united we stand, divided we fall’ stanza sounded more like a toilet joke than words of wisdom in the tug of power.

The fact that the economic recessions leaves no one unscathed is perceivable, and to some extent tangible enough to be felt, especially those who worked in the lower rungs of the private sectors. Unfortunately, I have yet to see some events which can be assumed to be an economic drag factor such as gambling, celebrity parties and wrongly scheduled projects to be reduced to a certain minimum degree. Some may argue that gambling provides revenue to the government. Yes, indeed it does to the government, but not the people. Each meager amount of revenue gained from gambling dens equalled a mountainload of broken families, money clashes, irredeemable debt and of course a fatter purse in the gambling master’s pocket. In this time of turmoil, perhaps we can look to those countries favoring the so-called ‘evil’ ideologies. Many communist governments have made agriculture and human infrastructures their top-most agenda despite the constant conflicts they were having with the rest of the world. As such, the abundance of surplus has made them quite an economic accomplishment in their own right. Coupled with the fact that their citizens don’t really have to work too hard to gain some kind of human comfort have led some socialite leaders to ridicule the capitalism dogma favored by their rivals. We may not be adopting their philosophy, but surely our ‘capitalism’ should leave much capital lying around? Perhaps there are enough economic opportunity lying around, but instead of the rest of the social strata, was it in the hands of only an elite few ?

Arguments over PPSMI is getting quite hot nowadays, and unlike other issues in which I preferred neutrality, language prioritization is an issue I have to make a stand for. As in my previous post, I am clearly making my stand over the education issue, which is to oppose any implementation of PPSMI overriding the status of our national language. I have read good arguments about the benefits of PPSMI to the younger generation. I do not rule out opposing views; they are beneficial and can serve to strengthen our opinion. However, I do find that some of the views have the wrong idea about how the language favoritization policy will affect our children. For example, some of the mainstream readers maintained that Bahasa Melayu has failed to serve us as a proper knowledge medium, and thus we must make a move to the English language in order to keep up. Well said, but that sounded quite similar to the then-colonial British government arguments when they decided to use English and Latin alphabets in formal documents instead of Malay and Jawi script. Even if BM do fail to assist us in science, whose fault is that? We ourselves failed to improve our language usage in accordance to its rate of word absorption. In a related views, it was maintained that we should not follow the Japanese and Koreans who maintained their native language in science, for they are already advanced race. In addition, if we followed them, it is predicted that we would have to import so much more words which would make life difficult for us and impede us. For those who cited such arguments, do they know that the modern Japanese and Korean language has a far greater composition of imported words than our Malay language? Kon-puta (computer), Kurisumasu (Christmas) and many others are proofs that the Far Eastern conglomerates do import words and still maintained their native languages as their education front. I supported the idea of learning foreign languages to boost our knowledge and communication power, but that does not take priority over the national language as stated in the constitution. For those who cannot imagine the immediate effect of wrong language prioritization, just look at our celebrity. In a recent celebrity show, it puzzled me to see that questions asked toward them in Malay was answered in a mixture of largely English and hardly Malay words by a Malay actor. Some deigned to consider it a shame to speak in their own mother’s tongue. Probably the ‘banana complex’ I theorized in my previous posts has taken foothold in them as well. If our leaders envisioned that only the implementation of English as our knowledge language can truly unite our people, I hope that they are not wrong.

So said al-Khawarizmi.

In the dawn of February 2009, we are greeted with news of several Perak State Assemblymen sudden disappearance. A ferw days later, they reappeared and all of a sudden, simultaneously declared party independency. In the general election of May 2008, Perak was held by the opposition party by a slight majority. This slight majority amounted to the same number of those disappearing assemblymen. Furthermore, although they either have stated independence or jumping back to the current opposition party (National Front), the independent individuals declared support for the National Front, throwing the state into governance confusion. In the end, the Sultan officially ordered the current State Minister to stand down and give way for a new Minister, resulting in more and more confusion and crisis.

Although I am in no position to question the actions of any parties, I have many reasons to believe that there is much more that meet the eyes in the calamitous event. First and foremost, the reason held in almost divine reverence among the National Front loyalist is that the current Menteri Besar, a PAS party member is more a proxy of the majority holder party, DAP than anything. This accusation, they said, is ubiquitously shown by the recent activities instated by the People Coalition front in Perak, such as permanent-hold status to non-bumiputra new villages and licenses for new pig sties throughout the states. Second reason, unpopular but not unquoted among both fronts’ majordomo, is the fact that Perak is highly likely to be part of the DAP’s ever-growing control in the next general election, becoming the next after Penang. This is due to the fact that the DAP won an overwhelming majority among the People Coalition votes, and the Menteri Besar post was given to the second-highest component party, PAS only because the Perak State law requiring its Menteri Besar to be a Muslim.

My opinion? As long as Third World mind-state persists among our leaders, no governance revolution can change our nation for the better. In this matter, I would like to quote some advice from PAS’ spiritual adviser. Even though I  neither oppose nor support the faith-based party, it helps to hear positive advices from everyone around you. In an interview with the ‘Over The Edge’ magazine, he was asked why he supported his party ideology a lot. He said that when we are united under a common divine banner, it does not matter whether we are of this race or of that race. He added that the most common mistake believed by both Muslims and non-Muslims was that religion was just that, rituals and rules and no further beyond. He personally believed that Islam was a way of life that can guide everyone, regardless of whether that individual legally embraces Islam or not. Being able to recite the Oath does not guarantee that you can adopt the way faithfully. The bane of race-based or group-based partisanship, he added, was that you tend to do favoritism one way or another, he added. Favoritism leads to close-one-eye, closing one eye leads to corruption. God created everyone different and in tribes so that we can learn from one another. If we knew that one race has good practices, it helps to learn from it. If they have bad ones, it helps to guide them away from it. These are  points of wisdom I half-expected from a zealous faith-based party, but probably it was from my own disrespect towards the more experienced that I had the negative preconception. In addition, when asked about the simplicity of his garb, his office and his home, the adviser stated that avoiding false accusation (fitnah) and over-indulgence should be the inner struggle of every leader. Probably the top brasses in the government would be shaky to hear that!

In conclusion, it was probably the craving for power that drives the Perak government into disarray. Let’s hope that none of us makes a bad step too close for comfort.

Ah, well, Barack Obama got elected as the new President of the United States, taking over the white man’s burden left by President George W Bush. Many people, especially African-American and African saw this event as a turning point in history, in which a colored person leads a white-dominant nation. That’s a popular notion, so I would have no comments on that, yet. A few minority think that nothing will change however, in regard to the overwhelming Israel lobbyist lining up the federal pocket. Even if Obama indeed has something positive on his mind, he might get assassinated by God knows who before he can attempt it, following the footprints of Lincoln, Kennedy, Martin Luther King and the like. Better red (with innocents’ blood) than dead, then.

The interesting thing is, the war on Gaza was halted (yes, halted, not stopped for good) just before the U.S. presidential election and Israeli general election. I think few have noticed this, since it was never mentioned on any news network. Could it be that the war was just a political ploy, a plot to gain the security guarantee of Israel citizen, and a way of showing who’s the sovereign ruler of the world? It was like a race between the parties to claim the honor of gutting down Hamas for themselves, and thus the vote of the citizens. It is pretty sad at how the world can only look at the atrocity and try to intervene but was stopped by a piece of paper declaring the legitimacy of murder. Until the general world dissolve all the legal formalities and put the responsible individuals on guillotine untried, we may never know. What? Lawlessness? Well, the juries on Saddam and his ilk’s trial were those who have private funded interests and abject hostility toward the tried, so it might as well be a one-sided ‘justice’, a trial in which we all know the final verdict. Furthermore, look at the ‘justice’ blessed upon the nations of Iraq and Afghanistan now. They are now in worse shape under the ‘democracy’ of the Coalition than in the ‘dictatorship’ of Saddam and company. Since when is a forced invasion into a sovereign country a just cause? Let’s not forget our much closer neighbor Vietnam who was the result of a similar jurisdiction back in the 1960’s. In the midst of the confusion over the legitimacy of U.S. invasion, probably many G.I.’s thought they were sent out into the jungles specifically to try out cute Vietnamese girls than to take on the Viet Cong. I’ve read many accounts of Vietnam War veterans who served in both World War 2 and Vietnam War. Most of them stated that the World War has more purpose than the Vietnam War, and that the war would be far less bloody had not the U.S. intervened. The effect of the 60’s war pervades until now; there are millions of explosive mines still undiscovered in the undergrowth of Vietnam, so much that minesweeping is a good business in Vietnam, and many Vietnamese children lost their lives or limbs to these old mines.

The power of words is mighty indeed. Take the independence of Israel for example. Some suspicious guy by the name of Lord Belfour single-handedly divided the lands of Palestine for his merchant friends and relocated the rest of the locals to some backward desert. It is like having some hobo entering your house who somehow has an agreement declaring that your bedroom is his, and shooed you to your lawn. Probably that hobo has the pleasure of giving your lawn to you, but pretty soon many other hobos will come. Soon, the only thing between you and the roadside is your gate, maybe even less. And thus a new nation was formed in 1948, with the pleasure of having the Suez Canal all to itself. Even Malaysia was not free from such agreement fiasco back in the early years of European imperialism. Mr Francis Light devised a clever set of agreements that favored himself and won Penang right from underneath the Sultan’s nose. It was a trendsetter back then; this action didn’t go unnoticed. Soon, the Pope himself divided the Southeast Asian region between the imperialist nations. The Pope legal letters must have carried weight, because soon our ancestors were all third-class colonial citizens of the various empires. Such decisions, when handled by those who have personal short-term interests backed by dubious agreements, brings misery to everyone.

Now to a news closer to home. The recent local squabbles which quickly escalated into racial disputes made clear that something is very wrong with our current education policy, both for children and adults. Every once in a while, someone almost always meted out events of 50+ years past and made it as though it’s current, adding fuel into the fire.

While questioning the education policy is not something suited to me (as per current view), everything that happened nowadays has something to do with our education. Our education has moved progressively from a national path into a more vernacular path. I’ve yet to hear full-time boarding schools that hosts students of various races. Parents are more comfortable sending their children to vernacular school, whether along the racial or religious line. As a result, our youngsters are having increasingly difficult time coping with citizens of other races. At the midst of this, our students are becoming lab rats for different Education Ministers, bringing their own mixture of education policies. It is still unclear how the government will handle the repercussions resulting from this neo-segregationist policies. One thing is clear; our youngsters will tend to huddle into groups of their own community, and cease understanding the wisdom in pluralism. With the introduction of the newest policy, Teaching and Learning of Science and Mathematics in English, probably even the future of our national language is dim. I’m not saying that English is not important, since it is a current lingua franca. It is how we prioritize it that made it matters. More and more children now grew up speaking a superfluously foreign language better than their own mother’s tongue. I have noted what I may call a ‘banana complex’ here in Malaysia, an amalgamation problem prevalent in western societies in which a guy or girl looks Asian, but acts like a Caucasian and knows little about Asian traditions Before we know it, we may end up being a colony of some superpower yet again, choreographed by a segregation policy of our own device.

Of course, not all is lost. Most teachers nowadays have science background of various fields. Now is the best time to put that science skill to use, and make theses that can be put into practical use as soon as possible. Our ruling caste may need a recasting too. Some of them are getting too weary for such demanding tasks; they may need rest or assistance from younger generations. Some may have gotten too comfortable from years of leeching off tax revenue and are afraid of letting go; for this, do unto them what you do to leeches that cling too long on your skin. Of course we should not totally dispose off the older generations. They still have the much-needed values in practice, and we may need to consult them once in a while. Our weakness is our difference, but it is also our strength. Weak in that the way to progress will be fraught with difficulties uncommon to other nations, but strong in that we will not suffer mental stagnation common to single-tribe communities. We should start teaching our children that they benefit more in learning from each other rather than in finding bad points from each other. It is time to stop broadcasting bad racial archetypes such as lazy-bum, charlatan or drunkard and promote quality point such as high tolerance,  good business practice or intelligent adaptation. Future, my readers, stand on the skin-deep flesh of the present and the massive bones of the past, and it is entirely up to us to make sure the pyramid continues building up, not toppling down.

So said Al-Khwarizmi.

As of today, the war on Gaza has reached 11 days, culminating in an official casualty total of 600 Palestinian and 3 Israeli deaths, plus 4 more Israeli deaths under friendly fire. Humanitarian support has been suppressed from all sides of Palestine; few support convoys made it through Rafah because of entry restriction, and the most that made it went through the extremely dangerous illegal underground tunnels under the hazard of bombing.

I’ve watched the news from all point of views. American news maintained that the Israeli attacks was well justified and supported the invasion, of course. It would be highly awkward that the Bush administration, who had made two invasions into Afghanistan and Iraq before, would oppose the idea however, due to the Israel lobbyist backing up the country administration. Israel news maintained that the purpose of the attack is to eliminate Hamas, the major party-militant group opposing Israel’s existence, or ‘it is a war on terror’, as put in by Israel’s foreign minister. Now where have you heard that before, eh? News from other country opposed the idea, and the fact that the war claimed more civilian’s life, mostly children, than the intended target itself. Muslim country news, in particular, slammed the Middle-eastern country, particularly Arab countries, for keeping quiet on the matter and ’showing up late on the U.N. emergency meeting’ as reported by Aljazeera’s Tony Everett.

I would say that all the news has truth at some point. The United States government has to support the invasion, or risk losing Israel’s interest. The fact that America itself has done two invasions in recent years does not make thing any better. America has grown to the superpower state due to Zionist’s wealth influx, so denying support for the Israel’s war would make things worst for American welfare. Take note that this is a purely governmental view however, which is not shared by a staggering majority of the American citizens. Everywhere in the nation, Americans whether Muslim or not demonstrated against the war. Following the fact that American occupation in Afghanistan and Iraq has claimed thousands of young American’s lives, many organizations and individuals opposed the idea that the Israel invasion is a just cause.

Israel maintained that the war is a move for Israeli existence. It is true to a degree. Hamas will not accept Israel’s existence forever, unlike the right-wing Fatah who accept co-existence. Increasing Jewish incarceration into the Palestinian territory had only made things worse. The Jewish immigrants more often than not pushed into Palestinian territory using money and aggression, which in turn triggered Palestinian ire. The Israeli government has failed to oversee the illegal immigration, inspiring even more intrusion into Palestinian territory. Being pushed further and further into a corner, the Palestinian had to react somehow. This reaction resulted in some stray rockets against Israeli buildings, which the Israeli government interpreted as a terrorist attack. Uproar from Orthodox Jewish community which insisted that Israel is religiously and politically illegal swayed the political body of Israel many times before, but had always subsided once a skirmish started. To procure a sense of safety for the dominant ruling party, somehow Israel must wage war.

Palestine in general was appalled by the war. The American and Israeli administration had insisted that the Hamas group agree to a ceasefire in a ‘balance agreement’. Balance is setting even sides to an equal value. Is it equal when Israel who had the most sophisticated army in the world, high-tech top-notch weaponry and nuclear arsenal, attacked the Palestinian militant who don’t even have an organized army and are armed only with home-made rifles and rockets? Just seeing the casualty difference gives the idea that the war is ill-balanced. Furthermore, the attack was made in reaction to a supposedly Hamas rocket which is fired onto an empty Israeli building. Was the destruction of Palestinian critical infrastructures and neighborhood a plausible balance? Hamas maintained that their small attacks are right, since Israel was conceived due to unrighteous takeover of Palestine territory by means of British agreements.

The war on Gaza was done on a high technology level, where the Israeli military commanders don’t even have to be there to guide an attack. I would like to refer to Nico Robin’s statement in Oda’s One Piece, in which she said that ‘maps show no people’. All the commanders have to do is point to a specific map coordinate and the artillery system will do the rest, bombarding the location without thought. Do the commanders see what is actually on the ground? Most probably not. Those in close proximity to guided artillery system will probably see whoever it is in target area, but will have no choice but to launch an attack. This is not like the war in old times, where soldiers traded fire in close proximity, and when things get close, blade clashes with blade. The two opposing sides both felt and knew the pain they inflicted on each other. This incited a sense of honor even between opposing forces. The kind of war we know today has no honor. Commanders no longer stand on the frontline, but rather on the backline. Soldiers fell even before they march. In case of Gaza war, it does not only lack honor, but compassion for the enemy as well. Children remained the top casualty of war. It is very likely that to clamp off the hate cycle, the children are deliberately targeted so that there can be no new recruits for the militant. Mosques, schools and hospitals are not military outfits, but they are targeted nonetheless. The Gaza War so far has claimed more lives than in the 1948 Israel Conception war.

[ I am not a proponent of war, but I am a proponent of balance and sometimes things must be done. There have been talks about boycotting American, British and Israeli products, but I personally think that such actions would deal wide area damage to not only the target, but also anyone even remotely connected. A straight, direct hit is far better. Few people know it, but the computer whiz all around the world hold the most powerful weapon against this atrocity; information. If you are a computer scientist as I am, you'll know that all modern guided weapons run on computerized information feed, connected through secure network. The hacker guilds hidden throughout the world have the ability to conceive a world-wide zombie network, and constitute a massive denial-of-service attack. It takes only one person who could social-engineer their way into the secure network and opens the door. If even one packet gets through, it can crash the guiding system and make the war zone more equal. No one can detect the source of the attack, simply because it is everywhere yet nowhere. In effect, it is the electronic manifestation of a global brain. It is only the matter of whether you care or not. The rest is up to the warring factions. ]

Happy New Year 2009 AD everyone!

Amidst the celebration and festivity, let us not forget the previous year’s issue. Nearing the end of the year 2008, I was jarred by several events. First was the death of my close friend, the second was the attacks made by the Israel military against the supposedly Hamas military infrastructure, and thirdly but not least was the fact that it was just my luck to have to find new job in the shadow of a major economic recession.

My friend, Fahmy or more popularly known as Nakata in the circle, was someone I least suspected of succumbing to a disease. Well, I’d frankly thought he would be more probable to croak in a motorcycle race as it was his favourite hobby, or maybe in the line of duty as he was a commando. He’s a soldier of relatively good health the last time I saw him just before the general election, so it took me by surprise when I heard the news of his passing on the night of 14th December 2008. Until now, I haven’t got a clear idea on what exactly did he suffered from, as his family and neighbors had no idea what his ailment was. But from the statement of a good friend who happened to be by him at the time of passing, I guessed that he suffered from a cancerous tumor which happened to hit the wrong place at the right time; the heart lining. The tumor had infested his gastrointestinal tract and his respiratory system, two vital systems of a human body, and I guessed that the final blow was when the tumor finally got into the heart. Thus, when I was informed that the late Nakata just slumped into the ward bed and fell unconscious just before a major intubation operation, I knew that the death angel has got him. He and I both have our issues, yes, but that did not stop me from being his pal. We chased the same girl together, lived in the same smelly rental house together, went on our wild rampage across the country together. The circle shall surely miss him. My only regret was that I have not had the chance to visit him during his predicament, thinking that nothing would go wrong anyway (Remember Murphy!). His death confirmed the statistic that cancer has overtaken heart disease as the numero uno muerto in the world. Well, he sure died young, but at least he is now free. What about us, then?

Israel and Palestine, their issues probably won’t end very soon as long as we’re still in the age of lawful evil. Just after Christmas, the Israeli defense forces rained bombs on what they said as the Palestine’s Hamas organization infrastructures in retaliation to, again, what they said to be a single Hamas rocket launch against an unoccupied building. The initial casualties amounted to nearly 400 deaths and thousands of injury cases, and as the attack has yet to stop even after 31 December, the casualties could possibly reach a thousand and more, affecting the non-Muslim and Muslim residents of Gaza alike. Israel’s action was like venting your anger on a single ant who had bitten you by destroying the whole ant nest. What did the rest of the Muslim (quote: OIC in the general, or Arab Muslims to be more precise) world do when this happened? Talk, as they had during the last six decades, and then do nothing. Sometimes it ashamed me that we are a part of this rather immobile organization, with most of its member preferring to sit quietly and count their petroleum profit, rather than helping among themselves. Seeing that the world single superpower (yep, no doubt about it, they ARE the superpower) backed the excessive atrocity drove the OIC members even further into their camel tent, and somehow justified that the Israel’s action is lawfully right. Bah! If only this was the age of barbarians, such ’superpowers’ would have no defense behind their flimsy laws and self-indulging merchants. But let’s not digress further; the point is, such violence is prevalent because we are afraid. Afraid of losing trade route, afraid of losing foreign investors, afraid of irking the wrath of the powers. Now look back at the history of the little army from Arabia back in the 7th century. Were they afraid of facing both Persia and Rome, back then the superpowers of the ancient world? Persia had their elite Immortals and backed by technologically superior archer platoons, and Rome had the most strategically superb military training backed with supports from thousands of its militias. The only technological edge the little army had was at best their crude recurve bows and camelhide armors. But were they afraid when they finally faced the military giants of the world? Sure, who’s not afraid during a battle. But they know that such fear cannot surpass the fear of God, and the fear that the age of tyrannical mysticism and power-hungry despotism would not end should they fall. There are even those among the attacker’s nation who opposed the show of power, and (expectedly) had their citizenship revoked. I’m not saying that each of us has to charge into the fray wielding anything we happened to find beside our bed. Look at how a pack of wolves took down an ox. Each of them had their particular specialty that could be used in the singular struggle against the mighty beast. Adapted to the human society, this represented the unique role each person or organization had in doing good. Therefore, to take down a giant, strike at his feet, and block off his sensory organs such as eyes; in dealing with tyrant nations (a good term I cooked up from the word always used on us small countries, rogue nations), block his information channel, and shut down trade route. The giant would then go crazy without sensory input, and would slowly starve. This would not kill, but would be enough to allow a forced diplomatic action. Why no killing? In my opinion, the suicide bombings and random bombings are highly ineffective and inaccurate. causing more needless casualties and rarely causing objective destruction. Besides. the civilians have few things to do with such despotism; they just want a normal life free of whizzing rockets and stray bullets like we do. Even if Israel is fated to exist forever, all we can do is at least make sure that there will be no war. The Holy Lands had seen strife for two thousand years; it must end by all means. Why, is it so hard for the Palestinian Muslims to live side-by-side with Jews and Christians?

Economic recession came earlier than I expected. Maybe it was caused by the Madoff scheme which swindled many billionaires, among them many Israel lobbyist. But surely, it was caused by the U.S.’s overindulgence on war against their so-called terrorism. Their campaign in Afghanistan and Iraq had costed them almost ten times the amount of their gross national income. Due to the federal reserve’s sneaky tactics, the government somehow always had money because most of it are not backed up by any assets anyway. But the ongoing loop must come to the beginning at any point, and now many U.S.’s taxpayers are finding themselves more and more deprived of their money due to the economic imbalance. Why? The banknotes are not backed up by assets at time of trading, but at times when it needed to be, what is the quickest way to back it up? Tax, of course. As a result, even industrial giants like General Motors and Daimler-Chrysler could not absorb such economic backlash, and had to cut down thousands of workers. Afghanistan and Iraq are not yielding their resources so easily anyway; the constant warfare cost highly outnumbered the slight profit trickling from the invaded nation, and the U.S. has no chance of getting a permanent profit pool due to the frequent skirmishes. Since most of the world depends on U.S. trade and dollars, nations involved in such trades suffer as well. Malaysia is slightly fortunate because of our varied economic resources and low dependency on U.S.’s trade. It is very likely however that a free trade agreement (which is popularly believed to have been foolishly agreed on by our government in secret) with the U.S.A. could result in economic crisis, so we must try to fend off such agreements however nice the benefits sounded like. We might fare better trading with regional neighbours like Indonesia, which has not yet fully recovered from the 1997 crisis, and our bitter rival Singapore, which was beginning to feel the economic pull of their close partner U.S.’s crisis. Low cost, low distance, similar taste; such benefits could help the Southeast Asian countries brave the crisis by helping each other. Thinking at how this crisis could easily starve me out, I was thinking of spending my money getting a sizable lot of land and then doing agricultural activities on it. I would look like a farm hobo, but at least I would not starve, right?

Lots of things happened, lots of things got forgotten. Let’s hope this year fares better than the last. Welcome, 2009 AD !