Categories
Liberty Personal Photography Politics & government Pop culture Society

[987] Of satire at Istana Seri Menanti

It’s 2 AM on a Sunday. I just got back from a dinner event at Istana Seri Menanti.

To those that organized the sketch, I salute thee. It takes courage to stage it in front of the King and the Chief Minister of Negeri Sembilan. Thanks goodness that we still have some freedom of expression in this country, despite daily erosion.

Some rights reserved. By Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams.

If this is the kind of quality play held at every annual MCOBA dinner, I wouldn’t mind attending the next edition. And the next too. Great job guys.

And, haha, thanks to Project Sayong for sponsoring my ticket. But I wonder, would this play hurt the project? LOL!

p/s – Nik Nazmi describes the play.

Categories
Politics & government This blog

[986] Of green here doesn’t refer to Islam

I have a feeling that some people think I’m a Liberal Islam because I call myself a green libertarian. Allow me to reiterate, I’m not part of Liberal Islam school of thought. I would like to clarify that the green in “green libertarian” is environmentalism. One way or another, typically, it’s free market environmentalism.

I hope that clears the air up.

Categories
Liberty Photography This blog

[985] Of five years of the __earthinc

On one fine fall evening, a hopelessly bored Michigan freshman started blogging.

Five years later, he is still blogging.

Thank you all.

Now, take my hand.

Some rights reserved. By Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams

Take my hand and together, hand in hand, we shall turn libertarianism into an awesome force in Malaysia. Or, you could buy me dinner instead.

Categories
Personal

[984] Of loving Facebook

Yes. After more than a year on it, I have finally come to appreciate it. At this moment, I’m missing all the people that I’ve come to befriend with at Michigan and looking for them up rather religiously on Facebook. So far, so good.

Currently however, I trying to track a history-majored Hmong friend what attended Prof. Lieberman’s Southeast Asian history class that I enrolled in as a freshman. Why him?

Well, his parents and him are exiled from Laos. The fact that his rights have been robbed by a authoritarian communist state really sticks in my mind. Through him, I learned that there is a large Hmong community in Chicago.

And he invited me to a dinner three years later after no news at all! How sweet is that? He cared to track me down.

Unfortunately, I, embarrassingly have forgotten his name.

And I still owe him dinner.

Categories
Economics Environment Kitchen sink Liberty

[983] Of let us be honest

Let’s be honest to ourselves this once.

You can’t expect more subsidy and expect taxes not to go up.

You can’t expect the government to give you everything and not expect taxes to go up. You can’t both have your cake and eat it too. Well, George Carlin might disagree but he’s a comedian.

C’mon.

You really want to satisfy your conscience by helping the poor by using somebody else’s money.

And c’mon.

You are more interested in jealousy rather than wealth inequality.

Let’s be honest.

You can’t expect others to grant you justice when you commit injustice to others.

You can’t expect to conserve your liberty if you would violate others’ liberty, every single chance you had.

Honestly, freedom is a two-way street.

You can’t expect a person to respect you when you disrespect others. Respect is reciprocal.

You really can’t expect people to trust you when you lied to them. Trust is reciprocal.

Let’s be honest. Let’s be true to ourselves this once.

You can’t prove that a supreme being exists. Or do not exist for that matter. You may believe or disbelieve in but but knowing and believing are two very different verbs. For all we know, theists and atheists are fighting over something that both of them can’t prove.

What does honesty mean to you?

How is it that your religion claims to monopolize everything that is good in this world but seems to produces only hate?

Let’s be honest. Goodness is larger than religion.

Be honest.

Could you advocate racism but in the same breathe, talk of unity across communal groups? How honest could you answer that question?

Be honest.

Do you call a person as racists but unwittingly realize that you’re a racist too?

Be frank.

Do you sway freely with populism or do you stand firm with your priciples? Have a backbone for once. Please.

Be true to yourself. In your little heart, answer this.

Do you really think you could consume everything today and still expect there’s something left for tomorrow?

And let be honest this one time.

As far as this entry is concerned, honesty is a cliché.