Categories
Politics & government Society

[18] Of I am a Malaysian

This shall be my last babble in Minneapolis.

Being too bored staring at the monitor, I’d decided to visit some stuff about Malaysia. My first stop was catcha.com.my. Nothing much to be mentioned there. Second stop, thestar.com.my. I browsed through the news and read some of it. The same stuff over and over again. Politics, car accidents, some events, racial segregation…

Wait! Racial segregation? What in the whole wide universe is this? Racial segregation in Malaysia? I thought this thing has become the thing of the past. Of course, the issue the Chinese conquering the upper level of education level and the meritocracy has become the hot talk when I was in Malaysia but racial segregation in the system?

I say, people will surely blame the British for their divide and conquer method of ruling. Well, the British was surely the one to be blamed but that is the past and nothing can be changed about it, unless of course, if the physicists found the secret of time travel (spelling it out, back through time), that will be another matter. I shout, there’s been a mistake in the Malaysian education architecture and design. I hail, the vernacular system should be stop one and for all, by phrase, slowly and be ended sometimes in the future. No All-Chinese, All-Indian, All-Malay higher education. The Chinese minority should not be allowed to establish a university of their own. Nor the Indian, nor the Malay themselves. The University in Shah Alam should be opened to all. Every University should be made for all. If the Malays argue that it is their right, then, let the quota for the Malay stand tall but not too big to degrade the quality.

I hate it when Malaysians are asked, “Which race are you belong to?” and the question is answered by “I’m a Malay”, or “I’m a Chinese” or “Indian”. Why can’t the answer be just “I’m a Malaysian”? Is it so hard so for us to claim ourselves as a Malaysian?

Categories
Society

[17] Of knowledge

It’s so frustrating to write up a source code and see the result is nothing but in a mumbo-jumbo disorder. Now I can remember how the way I felt back when I was taking C++ 2. Doing all the programming from dusk to dawn back to dusk again and seeing only the error messages; it’s great to know that that’s a thing of the past and I probably don’t have to worry about it for another 3 to 5 months. Ahh, I feel so lucky to be freed from programming (namely, the C language) but ironically, I’m teaching myself another computer language. And right now, instead trying to find the creator of C++ and cut his throat off, I’m trying to commit suicide for failing to comprehend a certain section of html. I guess a human mind is always as curious as a cat. Purrrrrrrrrrr…

It’s so cold today. I dare not go outside even with full winter clothing. I just hate the cold. While I was in Bloomington Indiana, I went to a souvenir shop and bought a few memoirs. Waiting for my credit card to be approved by the online system, I had a little chat with the man behind the counter. I told him that it was snowing pretty heavily. He looked outside and saw snow coming down. Then, he turned to me and said it shouldn’t be snowing heavily right now. Since the time taken for my credit card to be approved had been extended overtime, I continued babbling and said that I hate the cold. He said he understands and again, the same phrase I’ve heard, “…you shouldn’t be attending Michigan, Indiana or any of the Midwest schools if you hate the cold. You should be in Florida or somewhere hot…” I said, “That’s my mistake”.

And it’s all about he said she said… And I can’t believe that I celebrated New Year’s Eve in Chicago, at the Navy Pier for hours, under the zero range.

Don’t you like free-writing or free-thinking?

I just love it. By practicing it, my mind is not being contained inside a small box. My mind just flies freely like a bird that soars mightily up into the clouds. It feels like I’m flying. But unfortunately, both ways sometimes make me unable to focus deep into a subject. My e-journal has been full with entries that concern my personal life to the marcoworld that lives outside of my physique. It is outside of my physique but never out of my consciousness. That’s what makes me feel ever-powerful.

Come to think of it, the Great Library of Alexandria is comparable to the net. The Great Library held almost all of the ancient world knowledge. It would be exciting to rediscover this one particular member of the great wonders. The knowledge that it held could probably answer almost all of human ancient mysteries in the Old World. That knowledge will be so precious that I believe a Renaissance in arts and sciences will be reinitiated. Another Renaissance will prove to be human’s greatest feat of all times.

Perhaps, we are already deep into the second renaissance. The key to the First Renaissance was the transfer of knowledge from the Arab’s world to the European’s. I believe the key to the Second Renaissance will be the knowledge again. Right now, if you are reading this, it means that the cumulative knowledge that mankind had ever collected is at your fingertip. It’s just a click away. The word click that is used to describe the situation sounds absurd but it’s true. It’s just a click away. All the knowledge, although not in full details, is in the web. With it, comes power.

Nevertheless, with all the knowledge left unused, the power is wasted. Of course, the net changed the way we shop, communicate and live our life but it’s just that. I can barely see people use the net for academic purposes. I do have the audacity to say that almost 99% of my fellow friends know nothing of the Guttenberg Project that’s currently on the web. Be upset if you felt insulted but I am being as sincere as anybody could. I offer no apology. Face the facts and smell the flowers. If you still think I am wrong, then read the statistic for a Malaysian reading a book other than the thick textbooks per year. You’ll find that stats pathetic. I found it truly humorous.

I definitely found it disturbing when people learned about the works of Tolkien through a movie. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings has already been named the Book of the 20th Century but yet, the common people start to admire Legolas when they don’t even know the difference between elfs and elves.

My friends, go and read the books. They are precious for one day, there will be no books to be read and all you’ll be reading tomorrow is the writing on a monitor that’s constantly releasing harmful rays into your eyes.

Categories
Economics Politics & government

[16] Of welcome the Euro

This coming new year will be another year with full of surprises. Once the clock marks midnight, the most enthusiastically awaited event for the European, the E-Day will be launched. It’s the launching of the Euro, the so-called rival to the United States Dollar.

The Euro was actually introduced in 1999 but its usage, up to now, is limited to financial transaction only. After two years of waiting, the Euro will finally emerge in the daily life of 12 European countries’ citizens. The Mirage 2001, Ford and Playstation 2 will be paid in the new Euro, not in Franc, Lire or the Deutsche Mark anymore. The new currency will be the glue that unites the European Union’s members as one and makes them more competitive in the game of globalization. The E.U. leaders smile victoriously as they now have another common ground to talk about Europeanism (if that term ever exist).

While they are embracing for the much-awaited changes, the whole world including the Europeans themselves are cautiously observing the situation and hoping the launch of the Euro won’t hurt the European themselves. The American perhaps hope the new project will be a folly and while the Asian countries hope that they will have an alternative to the Dollar. Such a huge change may help catalyst a lot of events and thus, opening up numerous paths into the future for everybody worldwide. If the usage of the Euro is successful, it may encourage dozens of regional currency. One of such region is Southeast Asia, held together by the ASEAN, an EU counterpart for 10 developing nations.

However, for the European citizens, the pizzeria owner in Italy and the pub owner in Germany will be reluctant to accept this change. The conservatives fear that their country identity will be lost forever. The Franc has been synonym with the Frenchmen since the dawn of the French Empire. Once the Euro takes over, the will be no more Franc that will be related to France. The French will for certain lost a French identity. I see this currency conversion is similar to the lost of the New York World Trade Center in September. As the Twin Towers crumbled down to earth, the American lost part of their soul. Surely, the magnitude of the lost of the Franc to the common Frenchmen is as huge as the lost of the Twin Towers to the Americans. For the Germans, the pharse “eine schnelle Mark machen” (in English, to make a fast D-Mark) are senseless without the Deutsche Mark*. It seems to me that Europeanism is sacking each and every distinct Europeans’ cultures.
While I’ll be celebrating the New Year in Chicago, I will certainly remember that on the eve of first January, the Europeans are betting their head for a better future. It may turn ugly but let us just hope that the Euro will be a good development for us. We don’t need another folly that will affect the whole population of Earth. We don’t need to suffer more than we do.

nb – The words marked by ” * ” is taken from Andreas Purkott’s entry in EUROTRASH.
Visit the official Euro site for the E-Day.

Categories
Personal Travels

[15] Of waking up in Minneapolis

I woke from a satisfying slumber at nine in the morning at Madison after a long journey from Minneapolis. As I regained consciousness, I found my friend’s place as quiet as a library. I struggled to open my two weak eyelids, trying to stay awake. The eyes couldn’t be stimulated by the lights of sweet morning; my iris was trying to adjust its radius, adjusting itself quickly to allow the retina to receive the right amount of light. The muscles felt so refreshed but still, it was expectedly weak.

I tried to get up from the comfortable airbed but all the fight against slumber looked useless but yet I succeeded. I stood up, seeing blurred images, still trying to pull out my consciousness from somewhere in this world. I opened the room door and saw two of my friends sleeping in the living room. I know they were exhausted from the travel. The journey is not over yet however. In front of us, in the time dimension that is irreversible, lays more than 24 hours of drive. I wandered around a little bit. I couldn’t find my other friend. Perhaps he’s out. Nothing else to do, I returned back to bed that I’d slept on and sat on it. The pillow looked so tempting but I must continue my fight to stay wake. I stood up again and sat on a chair in front of a computer desk. I keyed in a few commands into the computer and made Winamp to play a long list of mp3s.

Heaven, it’s so comfortable here. It is making me to not wanting to travel. I just want to stay here and just rest. Back in Minneapolis, before I closed the car door, there was a small voice inside my head saying “Hafiz, don’t go. I know you’d like it here. Just stay here. Let them go and suffer the exhaustion…” I didn’t succumb that voice as I know I was the one that said in Ann Arbor in the first place “I must get out from here for at least for awhile”. Thus, I pulled the car door and say “Alright, let’s go”.

Now, here in Madison for the second time, I really don’t want to go into that Ford Taurus and head straight to Indiana. The journey would seem to take forever. The journey will make me entangled into uneasiness. A scenario change from a cozy padded chair to the ever-moving seat in a vehicle makes me feel unpleasant. After a blink of the eyes, my mind went though time, remembering vividly some time in the past, the virtual confession I’ve made inside a sleep. I am a conservative. I am. No matter how much I hate to label myself with that, I can’t lie to myself.

Maybe, that’s why I hate changes so much. I’ve tried so many a time trying to prevent changes but too often, my acts were useless. Some changes can’t be stopped. A person just can’t force the world to move aside with brute forces. A person just can’t push the Great Wall with both of his hands. Even Sir Isaac Newton declared that there is no work done by that action. Knowing this, why I’m still swimming against the current? Again, I know the answer.

I’m just scared of life. I’m afraid of the consequences. I can’t blame myself for that. My life is shaped by experience. I learned from experience, much like everybody else who is trying to achieve a better life. However, I’m different. While trying to reach a better life, I’m trying to hold everything else as constants so that I can just focus in one main direction. It’s a hard thing and I even starting to think that what I’m doing is a vain act. Life is so hard but here I am; better off from millions of others. Yet, here I am, complaining, hating changes. Why I hate it so much?

Unfamiliarity, uneasiness, instability, ignorance, incapability, dissatisfaction. I’m afraid all of those words. There are more but in a way or another, it has the same negative meanings.

Yet, as I traveled on the interstate freeway, my surroundings were painted with the clean white snow; the skies were the unimaginable elvish blue. It was a beautiful sight. And it was caused by a change. A scenario change from the metropolis of Minneapolis to the countryside of Madison. Maybe, this is the reason why I must endure changes, for better or for worse.

Categories
Politics & government

[14] Of the angels and demons of war

“Another head hangs lowly, child is slowly taken
And the violence caused such silence
Who are we mistaken

But you see it’s not me, it’s not my family
In your head, in your head, they are fighting
With their tanks, and their bombs
And their bombs, and their guns
In your head, in your head they are cryin’
In your head, in your head, Zombie, Zombie
In your head, what’s in your head Zombie

Another mother’s breaking heart is taking over
When the violence causes silence
We must be mistaken
It’s the same old theme since 1916
In your head, in your head they’re still fightin’
With their tanks, and their bombs
And their bombs, and their guns
In your head, in your head they are dyin’

In your head, in your head, Zombie, Zombie
In your head, what’s in your head Zombie “

Listening to certain music will certainly make me think of a unwanted situation. A situation where war is everywhere; peace is nothing but a vain hope.
War is humanity greatest enemy. It kills lives unnecessarily, without mercy, without a second thought. Nevertheless, human long history has been tainted with blood. The red cold blood.

Can you imagine a child, who knows nothing of the cruel world, hugging her dead father body in the middle of a crossfire between two different group with different ideology. Both sides keep on firing; the child keeps on begging her father to wake up, hoping that her father will open his eyes and bring safety to her. She will keeps on hoping haplessly in the middle of the battlefield. The war will continue on. The firing will not stop. Never, ever.
Will you cry? Will you be indifferent? Will you be moved to run toward that child and pull her over? Will you say to yourself, “It’s too bad but I have my own life to live”? Or will you stop the war?

I myself am not very sure what I would do in that situation, seeing a child in the middle of a war. Of course, I, right now, in Minnesota, in a comfortable friend’s house, in front of a state-of-the-art laptop, knowing that I am safe here, knowing nothing of the real pain of war, will say, “Stop the war!!! For pity sake, cease firing!!!”. That’s a typical peace loving human. A peace lover will say anything but I doubt that I will ever go into the fire zone, run to the child aid, risking my precious life. In my opinion, most of the typical peace lovers will join the anti-war rally in the middle of the street but will be reluctant to join the people who are in the battle zone. I, myself included. By saying this, I’m not denying that there is somebody out there that really has the courage to fight for peace. To them, my uttermost respect.

However, isn’t fighting for peace, with M-16, Ak, etc. is an act of war itself?

In order to save the child, we send a bomb to both sides, killing all, including the child that we are going to save.

Peace, to achieve peace, we commit the crime of war. To let peace prevail, we force peace onto war. Isn’t that an act of war itself?

Maybe, right now you are thinking that I’m a person that thinks this is a world that just consists of black and white. Grey area is a non-existence. Well, in a way, I’m including the whole colors of this ironic world. Peace and war, they are two different terms describing one, single thing. Peace and war, they co-exist with each other. They are symbiotic to each other. Peace and war, they are yin and yang. Omnipresent, ominous.

In a battlefield, two sides, one is a rebel group, fighting for their state’s independence for the oppressive central power. The other is the government force, trying to preserve the integrity of the state for being torn apart by the cruel rebel. A girl, weeping in front of a dead body, innocent. The rebel, fighting for the future of their children. The government, fighting to preserve peace. The child, innocent, just wanting a peaceful life.

Will we help stop the war?

Will we help the child without any regard for our live?

Will we sit back and think who is right and who is wrong first?

There is a reason for peace. There is a reason for war but the fight is not merely between good and evil. It’s a combination of both. No sides are purely a devil, purely a saint.