"it's all greek to me"

let's see if i could come out with a venn diagram for this. :)

1. “Spain is not Greece.”
Elena Salgado, Spanish Finance minister, Feb. 2010

2. “Portugal is not Greece.”
The Economist, 22nd April 2010.

3. “Ireland is not in ‘Greek Territory.’”
Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan.

4. “Greece is not Ireland.”
George Papaconstantinou, Greek Finance minister, 8th November, 2010.

5. “Spain is neither Ireland nor Portugal.”
Elena Salgado, Spanish Finance minister, 16 November 2010.

6. “Neither Spain nor Portugal is Ireland.”
Angel Gurria, Secretary-general OECD, 18th November, 2010.

...

"SAYA MALAY, SAYA OKAY"

"so why is it immoral to have sex with animals?"
"cause animals can't give proper consent, hence having sex with animals equals rape."
"well then would it be immoral to have sex with a frozen chicken?
to which i answered...
"to waste food is immoral."
and then he replied,
"what if the chicken was about to expire."
and someone also added,
"did he eat the chicken?"...
"i don't know... religion says you can't"

religion...
this is where it gets deeper and problematic.

you see, not everyone subscribes to the same religion or rather not everyone subscribes to religion in the first place. which makes questions regarding morality -tricky. it gets trickier when you are dealing with those who argue that morality should solely be based from a logical stand point and not religion. if you think what i am writing is ridiculous, you should stop now because it is not going to get better.

so how does one present a case on morality, solely using logic. you can't just say "euw that's gross", because what is gross to you might not be gross to others. you can't use concensus, because that wouldn't be fair to the minority. (just so you know there are countries that legally allow incest and beastiality).

malaysia's constitution is mostly anchored by religion. and let me state here for the record - i do not have problems with it. however, i also do note that this might be problematic if one began to question about basic human rights.

homosexuality for example.

some of you might have seen the "saya gay, saya okay," under "seksualiti merdeka" series on youtube. i was reading comments to the video and some of them were atrociously ridiculous, purely mindless epitaphs - a complete waste of braincells. on the flip side though i do understand why they came about.

homosexuality in malaysia can ONLY be argued from two aspects - either on the basis of religion and /or morality. for those who accept religion, MOST would be against it on the basis of both, however for those who discard religion, homosexuality is ultimately a question of moral - is it immoral allow it or immoral to disallow it on the basis of human rights which is what i think what "seksualiti merdeka" about.

problem is...

to have a 33 year old malay man, presumably muslim featured over the internet in a country where muslims are the majority, such outrage is to be expected. i mean, one would be a monumental moron to expect otherwise - and since i think none of them in "seksualiti merdeka" is a monumental moron, i see this as purely manipulative at the expense of one malay man by the name of azwan playing martyr.

let's further simplify the situation. the odds of legalising homosexuality is pretty slim here in this country mostly (like it or not) due to religion. either an outright revolution where the sultanate and islam as official religion are removed or, go head to head with the imams and ulamas proving homosexuality is instead allowed. now if one were to argue that malaysia is a secular country for instance, consuming alcohol is allowed for non-muslims then i would say why then must you include mr. azwan as part of your cause - that doesn't make sense because mr. azwan is presumably muslim and if he was not, now that would bring us to a bigger problem which i shall refrain to discuss for now.

i was talking to a gay friend of mine (muslim malay), asking him whether he would do it - a youtube confession. he gave me the most sensible answer. he realises the situation here in the country and... he doesn't need EVERYONE to accept him the way he is. let's admit it... you can't expect everyone to accept you the way you are, gay or non gay. hmmmmmm... sensible and i have the utmost respect for that. who you are is of course your own right and no one has the right to tell you who you should be. acknowledging that however also needs to be coupled with the realisation that we should not shove such believe unto others.

anyway. that's that.

hemingway said to always include about the weather when writing or telling a story. storm is brewing... i hope i could run for cover.

sekian.

TAUTOLOGY

in life there are turning points in which your views of the world change dramatically. some of you might cheekily say "we change every minute," - which is true, like your atoms are decaying as you are reading this, but apart from physically changing, that doesn't mean a thing because your core, what makes you as a person stays the same. views however, change and people make adjustments based on this.

for instance, once upon a time, people believed the world was just a pancake, that was the reality, some people were afraid to walk far, fearing they would fall... but then as time goes, people found out that the world is actually round... change of view, people were still walking but they travelled further knowing they would never fall off the cliff. they adjusted.

my mother has been there most of the time, when these view changing events happened. when my father passed away, i was three, i saw my mother cried, sobbing for hours. you know not the typical 'salam raya' kind of cry but i couldn't explain it really, mind you i was three, but what i saw was a woman scared of the unknown, what will become of us and that made me cried too, not because my father passed away but more of seeing her like that. i viewed my mom differently since that day... that everytime she was angry or emotional, i would go back to that very day... and i would understand that she was not angry actually... she was just scared. as a boy, i didn't change, i made her angry still but i was a bit more ready with the consequences and protested less.

once, my mother got into an accident. her old beat up toyota was in the workshop for about a month. we were carless - but she insisted on bringing me and my sister out to KFC to celebrate us getting good grades. took us about an hour to get a cab and while waiting, my mom said, "kalau kita susah, tak ada orang pun pandang," - i was oblivious to that fact till that very day, oblivious to how hard it was for her to live as a widow in such hostile society. i view the neighbourhood differently since then. things started making sense, like why i was never selected to play football for the school even when i deserved it... i didn't change to meet the standards set by society, i moved out from the circle. it made me happier, plus i made new friends with the boys in the nearby palm oil estate when they invited me to join their football team.

time goes by. my mother re-married. i graduated. got a job. did stuff. well whatever. that was that. whatever it is, i am still the same. i made adjustments but i am that very same kid, main bola kaki ayam dengan budak estet beruas, never got a chance to play for the school. so yea, if you want to change yourself or other people... trust me, it is impossible, but what you could do, your best bet, is change views... and then make adjusments accordingly.

after all, having views is what living is about.

troubled world

responsible for more than 2,000,000 deaths.


allegedly shot her husband with a pump gun.


murdered because of what he preached...


killed john lennon.


killed by BP


work of neurons.

Now... the problem is...

So there was a review i particularly picked recently in Selangor Times on "Serangan Zombi Pertama di Malaysia"... Well, knowing the reviewer, it was pretty predictable what he was going to write about. Some excerpts...

The more traditionally theatrical, dialogue-driven scenes involve Salmon and risk-adverse physics nerd Ma’an (played by performer/writer Redza Minhat) trapped in an ofcepantry. The big debate? Whether they should leave their safe haven, brave the undead-infested streets, and travel on to Langkawi, a supposedly “Zombie Free Zone”. Eventually,Ma’an comes to the predictable conclusion that he can’t live his life like a routine-obsessed zombie, and takes a chance. That’s paltry stuff. The zombie genre has been pregnant with socio-economic commentary since Romero’s Night on the Living Dead, dealing with runaway consumerism, the concept on the Other, and Hobbesian ideas on government.

Serangan Zombi Pertama di Malaysia was an opportunity for incisive observations about the Malaysian state of being.Unfortunately, it doesn’t dive below surface-level moaning.

Here's what i think.



i know a beruk in tanjung jara who does wonders daily. Sekian.

violence is the last refuge of the incompetent

i am agree -> wrong.
i agree -> correct.
i am agreeing -> correct.
i agreeing -> wrong.

just a note.

anyway.

the other day i was with my mother watching 'melodi'.
at the end of the show i saw a mamak looking guy angry at something.
it wasn't clear what made him so angry.
possibly about a girl making up story about him.
but he was... so angry.
and in a fit of rage, he yelled
"look here, that girl is NOT MY CUP OF COFFEE!"

whoa. that was awkward.

of course she's not.
you moron.
sigh. people shouldn't be so emotional on national tv.
makes them look like a retard.

sugar ray

masa aku kecik dulu aku minat sugar ray.
selalu aku pakai baju hawaii dengan rambut tercacak dan sedikit goatee.
pernah sekali ada classmate aku cakap aku nampak macam ricky martin.
tapi gemuk.
aku terus reply, "i just wanna fly. put you arms around me baby, put your arms... get it? get it?"
lepas tu classmate aku terkebil kebil.
"takpelah kalau you tak faham. i tak expect you faham pun."

betul lah kawan aku cakap.
orang memang selalu tak faham apa yang kita cuba portray.

the other day i saw her again.
she was in an mpv.
with a few kids.

i wonder what was she trying to portray.

SURE... INDULGE AWAY!

early in the morning a status on facebook read,
"so uols, uols rase i patut teruskan ke diet tak makan nasi, apa pendapat uols?"
and... "im in mid valley, shopping for socks, so what colour? grey, black. what do you think?"

and then... i saw these gripping photos sent to me.









and then i was staring blank at the horizon during my morning coffee.

...