The Zen and Zing (ZZ) of Catching Blue-bottles (BBs) With My Bare Hands (BH) or 'I' of the Quick Hands!

The Zen and Zing (ZZ) of Catching Blue-bottles (BBs) With My Bare Hands (BH) or 'I' of the Quick Hands!

by Zaharan Razak on Saturday, March 26, 2011 at 11:30pm

Catching BBs with BH is one thing,
Bragging about it on FB is another;
Instead of applause, I got brickbats (BB2)!
One advised me not to forget washing hands afterward,
Another archly asked how come the flies were drawn to me!
A third was moved into pantun mood to inform me that
flies and bluebottles share one thing in common -
They shit on shit. All year six stuff dumped on FB!
None bar none think of fly catching as an art, a science,
And an exercise in mind-body coordination.
If you google, there's plenty of stuff
Which wax lyrical on catching BBs with BH.
A pair of quick hands is handy in life and the ability
To catch flies with BH provides a good test and training.
I betcha the BB2 throwers are not only flabby
in the middle but also upstairs. They can't think outside
Their conditioned box.
With me it is more than an exercise in quick hand -
Catching BBs with BH has been a lifelong passion:
I've been swiping flies since childhood,
Even keeping a mental logbook:
I can do it with either hand;
The most number caught in one sweep is 12;
Once in a while, I've caught a fly in mid flight!
The only other thing I've caught more than flies
Is roaches. Scores since childhood. Sometimes
with BH, but, I must admit, mostly with aerosols.

Should Dr M's 'Doctor In The House' Be Translated Into Malay?

Should Dr M's 'Doctor In The House' Be Translated Into Malay?

by Zaharan Razak on Sunday, March 20, 2011 at 10:58am

If you are patriotic of the parochial kind like Gapena you would probably say yes. In fact I dare say Gapena secretly rues (or should that be secretly resent or grudgingly admire) the book being written in English in the first place. Heck the very idea of inviting Dr M to be their patron saint would drive all members to resign and form 2Gapena.

You see, the Malay language has a way of turning a deceptively simple but evocative phrase like 'A Doctor In The House' into something that is neither here nor there ... 'Doktor Dalam Rumah'. Translating it into 'Doktor Dalam Dewan Perwakilan' does not improve matters either. It may be technically and literally correct but it sounds contrived and stilted. That is the crux of the Malay language which puts many people off - it sounds contrived and stilted.

Gapena-ers don't know any better so for them it is a case of ignorance is bliss just like the frog under the coconut shell thinks it is living in a wonderful world. The Malay language do have their own evocative power but of the narrow and shallow kind. Thus in describing people who think living under a coconut shell is the better deal they would often use the phrase 'syok sendiri' which of course describes themselves.

So no prize for guessing (pardon the cliche) what my answer to the question is - please do not translate the book. Leave it as it is and retain its wealth of nuances and evocations. Translating it would demean it into a forced to read school textbook recommended by Gapena like 'Interlok'. Interlok? Rendering 'Interlock' as 'Interlok' not only demeans the original word but applying it to mean racial integration is as laughable as translating 'answer' as 'retaliate' as in this actual example I found here at FB: "Asked why, he retaliated that he wished he had taken English seriously so he could read Dr M's book." Except for 'retaliate', I've tidied up the sentence to make it sound more English than the original which you can find and read yourself for its atrocity value.

Our Behaviour Is Largely Unrecognized Conditioned Reflexes!

Our Behaviour Is Largely Unrecognized Conditioned Reflexes!

by Zaharan Razak on Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 11:38pm

 

Very few people could tell off-hand the meaning of this rather academic sounding phrase, conditioned reflex. It is a term from the field of psychology which very few people outside the field have ever heard of or care two hoots about it when they see one. Fact is it runs through most of our behavior and thoughts and is a very useful concept to understand and explain many if not all our collective and individual wayward behavior and errant perceptions about most things.

A conditioned reflex is a repeated response, a habitual, inflexible, indirect response, to anything that arouses our interest or emotions. The thing that attracts our attention and demands a response can be an idea, a piece of information or news, a belief, other people, an ordinary everyday object or the world. Let us for simplicity call them all information.

Now information affects or has the potential to affect you in some way, that is, it arouses your interest and/or emotions and naturally, you respond.

The question now is IS YOUR RESPONSE ADEQUATE AND APPROPRIATE or is simply erroneous!

This depends on whether the information you receive is true or false, one, two, do you read the information correctly or incorrectly?

Now, information does not come in a raw form technically called data. The data have been ordered and presented by a source through a medium which could be language, sound or symbol or memory of an experience. Your brain then decode the information in terms of what it already knows or does not know including biases, prejudices, beliefs, fears and expectations.

Take ghost as a common example. In this RESPONSE-STIMULUS  matrix, 'ghost' is information. But it is not raw information as if the word 'ghost' is the object (if it can be called object!) ghost itself. So you see when we react upon hearing the word ghost, be it in fear or interest, we are not responding to the objective reality of ghost whatever it may be or if it does exist at all BUT MERELY TO THE WORD GHOST! Now as everyone knows but often forgets the word is not the thing but is merely a symbol of the thing!

There you have the crux of the problem in dealing with reality! We are reacting to the symbol rather than the reality. Now symbol is man-made and can be manipulated to influence or gain an advantage.

A symbol can be loaded up with extra meaning quite different, exaggerated or added on if you like from the thing which it refers to. Such a symbol can be described as excess baggage.

No one one can prove beyond a shadow of doubt that a ghost really exist! But most people react with strong emotions to the mention of ghosts! People also manipulate the idea/word/belief of ghosts as a means to influence or gain an advantage on others.

We have been conditioned - exposed repeatedly - to react to the symbol - word, story, movie, image - of ghosts without ever experiencing the real thing if it exists.

Now replace the word ghost with the word god and you understand why religion and belief in god is a conditioned reflex never mind if god really exists or not.

Thus a conditioned reflex is an automatic response that becomes a habit by sheer force of repetition, imitation and mass adoption that bypasses thinking and analysis to a symbol mistaken for reality itself.

Misanthropes Unite!

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Religion Is Thick In Symbolisms and Traditions & Thin On Proven Facts ... Evil Impersonate?

The Tudung Revolution

Way back in 1971 a student leader named Anwar Ibrahim set up ABIM (Anwar bin Ibrahim Maju) as a vehicle to advance his ambition to be somebody on the Malaysian socio-politico landscape riding on the largely inchoate groundswell of Muslim youth in search of a new image and banner to assert their identity feeling threatened by the pervasive economic and cultural influence of the West and the non-Malays majority of whom are non-Muslims.

Traditional religious institutions and rituals, PAS, UMNO were the main clothes hangers  for Muslims to hang their emotional identity needs on, but there was an unexpressed, inchoate (same meaning actually, kiki) need for a new image and face. The face was provided by Anwar who was a jambu during kolej days but now beginning to show the wear and tear of too many times entering back doors and exiting front doors. The image was provided by the tudung. Anwar and ABIM members gave a new meaning to the wearing of the tudung. He made it popular, glamorous and fashionable. It is no more a symbol of piety than driving a posh car is a symbol of money well earned. Nowadays, anyone driving a flashy car is a suspect of being a crook, a corrupt official, a lawyer on the take, a dishonest politician, an SPM drop out who happens to have the ability to sing or kick a ball.

Similarly, wearing a tudung does not mean one is a god-fearing pious person. BUT IT IS CHIC! Also it is good PR in the form of window dressing to attract Muslim customers in this halal-haram suspicious world that Muslims find themselves co-mingling as a result of too much historical sleeping their ancestors indulged in ... what I call the Stupor of the Stopas! (In Kelantan dialect Mustafa is pronounced Stopa!)

So now the man who started the tudung revolotion has long abandoned his original vehicle for advancing on his Moscow, and instead is expending all his resources to stay within sight of Moscow but every step he takes to stay in position takes him a step backward. Rather like Michael Jackson doing the moon walk in the Billy Jean music video.

So now we have to change the acronym a bit to suit changing times ... ABIM: Anwar bin Ibrahim Malu.

Pickup Camperhome: Way to Travel the World

Pickup Camperhome: Way to Travel the World

by Zaharan Razak on Wednesday, March 9, 2011 at 4:41pm

Lining up for a photo with the Swiss family helps to sooth my travelitis envy.

Natalie and her kids. The garcon is 8 et sa fille, 6.

The pickup is a Mazda double crewcab. The camperhome is made to measure in Germany.You can pull the camperhome out like a drawer and leave it somewhere safe when not needed to be on the pickup.

For comparison, this is a made in Thailand camperhome foisted on a single cab pickup truck. Bigger home but can only seat 2 people. Suitable for a couple and not a family. You also cannot separate the camper from the truck. A case of you can't have your cake and eat it too.

Ever since I read John Steinbeck's "Travel with Charlie," in which he drove across America with a poodle in a pickup truck with a camperhome affixed to its cargo bay, I've long dreamed of going on the road with a similar setup but the Malaysian motoring culture does not cater to such offbeat lifestyles and so no off the shelf camperhomes are available on the market. You can have it specially made but you've got to know your resources. So even until now my dream has remained a dream. Maybe I'll do it next year or year after ... I plan to base my camperhome on the all new 2011 Ford Ranger said to be available in September. For the camperhome, I'll get a local coach builder to do it for me.

Today while riding in Dungun town on my Modenas 125 I chanced upon this camperhome parked not far from Dungun Maidin Store. They were looking for a fax facility to send copies of documents to Switzerland where they come from.

About six months ago, I came upon a motorhome based on a Ford Transit van belonging to a French couple going around the world. By chance both women from the motorhome and this camperhome are named Natalie and they know each other because of their similar mode of travel.

To know more about the Swiss family Natalie, here is their website: www.lesGLEN.net.
For the French couple, Nat & Jean, here: http://www.natetjean.com/topic1/index.html.

FB A Rich Vein of Human Prototypes, Here Goeth:

FB A Rich Vein of Human Prototypes, Here Goeth:

by Zaharan Razak on Wednesday, March 2, 2011 at 2:20pm

1. Cyndi Lauper Type: Daddy, you're still my number one, but we girls just wanna, just wanna, have fun, fun, fun, That's all we really waant, just to have fun ... yeah, yeah, yeah ... fun, fun, fun ...
2. Eeerrmm Type: This one only knows how to growl using punctuation marks and perversely misspelled words!
3. Straight and narrow: This is the cyber Taliban who is dogmatic and believes only he and his beliefs are right, others are wrong! His mission in life, at least on FB, is to copy and paste ready-made sacred cows so as to look straight and narrow himself. Challenge him and he quickly feels annoyed and say, You're insulting my ancestors! Or his straw beliefs.
4. Shallow and narrow. Hey, mister! Why so serious! (There's even a contemporary pop song for them to hang by the coat-tail to) FB is only for chilling out, don't you ever forget that!
5. The Croakers: Like frogs in a pond after a sudden shower they croak alike producing an orchestra of sounds like ,,,///!!1???huhu, je, ak, :)),,,,-**-??hehe,,,hhaha//,,kokkikokkik ... aka Calibans. They also spell oops as oppss ...
6. The Too Smart For My Own Good Self-Confessed Kiasu Smarty Two Shoes. These will never let a comment pass sitting down without responding with an even smarter comment.They are wired up to be fired up. No second best or second guessing for them. They prefer to die standing up guns blazing than kneel down and beg for mercy. I bet when all the chips are down they will commit suicide. No surrender. Banzai!
7. The Vulgar from the Volga: They cannot resist their favorite battle cry, A Fart By Any Other Name Smells Just As Sweet. Oops, did I misquote a word? Aka FB maggots.
8. One wrong wong makes all wongs wrong: This is the type whose brains still operate on stereotype and sectarian rails. Their views are not based on objective facts and relevant fields of knowledge but based on what belief/cultural/class/racial group they belong. Ditto their opinions of others, not based on the individual person but on his ethnic group. Aka Wong from Huang Ho. Aka FB bigots.
9. The True Misanthrope. I only know two of these species, AJY and ZR. They are listed in the IUCN extinction list as vulnerable/endangered.
10. The Ants. These work hard to copy and past one-liners - jokes, trite, corny sayings which sound very deep to them - etc - taken from another site, often not bothering to give the name of the original writer or source. Also known as Mr Postman or Pizza Hut Delivery boy. Asked why, they'd say to serve as reminders ... yeah, like thousands of leaflets being airdropped during the Malayan emergency.
11. The chillers. These are people who seem to be quite successful people offline, running their own businesses, holding down good positions, having good family ties, or swinging their legs in retirement, but here on FB, they strip down and jump into the communal pool splashing in the water without any semblance of swimming like children in a wading pool. The serious swimmers training for the Olympics in another pool shake their heads in disbelief. Aka going gaga.
12. The blood, sweat and tears. This type will look high and low on the Net for sensational video - anything with blood, a mishap, freakish, grotesque, ghosts, or against the order of nature -  and upload them here. They do it with regularity too, as though a habit, and invites you with a straight face, to say something about the video.
13. "And what type do you belong?" shoot back type.
14. The Anonymous. This type may hide only their real names but reveal their photos or hide both. If you are a fan of them you'd call them The Scarlet Pimpernel. If you don't like them you'd call them the boy or girl next door with a pimple to hide.
15. The humble. Has the habit of popping up with their tails between their legs or both palms covering their shame so as not to cause offense. If you tell them something which makes them feel inadequate, they will call you a show off and invite you to meet his big brother ... this type will never fight their own battle simply because they don't have enough ammo, or armor. He is often a product and a victim of hidden feudalism.  Humility is either a mask for an inferiority complex or reverse psychology to tamp down a rising sense of self-importance.
16. The CT. No, CT does not stand for communist terrorist! This type likes to give out incomplete status updates, often without context, teasing your curiosity or showing a bit of leg and then failing to deliver or falling flat on the promise. It lies in common with the proverbial snake oil seller or pasar malam vendoring of the generator-powered loudspeaker kind. Often, the info is plagiarized. They will bend all rules and will never be on the mend. It is built into human nature and any suggestion of rules, principles and values will be instantly interpreted as totalitarian imposition.
17. The simple-minded. As much as Simple Simon wants/wishes the world to be simple, the world is a complex thing with many twists, turns, levels, highways, byways, corridors, nooks and crannies. It is a mark of genius to be able to see the simple in the complex and the complex in the simple but for the simple-minded he wishes or think the world is simple dismissing or ignoring the ramifications of an issue rather like an ostrich burying its head in the sand at the first sign of a challenge to its pea-sized brain. E=MC2 looks simple as a mathematical symbol but invite Einstein or AJY to spell it out on the blackboard and you will scream for mercy or loll your tongue in a stupor ending up looking like a stupa. The symbol sums up the universe. The universe and all that is in it is simple? "C'mon!", to quote Siriwan Mena.
18. The constipated. This type hasn't chipped in a word for days on end. His favorite response is "No comment,"  "Huh" or "Duh." Nothing comes out because there's nothing inside. Trust me, I meet them everyday. They lurk around every corner watching the world passes by, ready to pull back into the shadows or bushes at the slightest threat to his "battery low" intelligence. Pressed hard, they spout banalities of the kind you were told in primary year six.
19. The diarrhea. This one is the opposite. This one talks too much saying nothing. Lost in trivia and minutiae and long in the telling, it keeps you waiting for the point or punch line like a reporter waiting outside an important meeting only to be told there's no story.
20. The Gunslinger. This type shoots back the moment he sees the iris of his adversary's eyes widens or, getting hit,  before his falling body hits the ground. He is the opposite of the poet, next.
21. The poet. This type does not shoot back immediately. He retires into his fox-hole, nurses his wound, recollects in tranquility and composes a reply days, weeks later, and may not even address or target the person who presents him with the challenge in the first place.  The result? Literature. The poet liberates himself from being sucked into the need to retaliate but sees the challenge as an impetus, occasion or opportunity to try to carve out a work of art. He might even secretly thank his 'adversary.' First and foremost he answers to the Muse and not to the knee-jerk need to retaliate.
22. The obscurantist. This type likes to issue puzzle- or word-cross like status updates using obscure terms and references or his own 'Alice in the Wonderland' meaning which only he is privy to and expect you to know or tease your curiosity - 'You really want to know?' Some raise a question and before you could answer, answer it himself! Duh. An overgrown schoolboy masquerading as an adult. The more obscure the smarter he feels. To me he is swimming in his own excrement (there goes the Vulgar Volga in me!)! Cheapskate.
23. Lurker. This type sees no evil, hears no evil, says no evil. He just skips and skims quickly, maybe hit a "I Like" here and there and smiles benign smiles or maybe pulls a long face occasionally.
24. Stalker. Cousin to lurker.
25. Proxy War. Like America who cannot send marines to all war fronts but choose to arm locals to fight a common enemy, proxers are 'Istimewa' types in wheelchairs who upload dogmatic stands or ride piggyback on another commentator's comment by clicking on "I like" or adding a 'Hahaha" to prop up their emotional decrepitude and mental stagnation.

One Person's View of the Palestinian Presence in Malaysia

I'm quoting in toto and verbatim without comment one person's view of the Palestinian presence in Malaysia based on his experience dealing with them:

"they are not the best of Arabs that l have got to know of....we are vulnerable to their criminals, who can enter here without any visa needed, there are gangsters, drug dealers and prostitutes among them.our government are giving them 1 mth entry visa...from there they will ask for more extensions from our immigrations via their embassy...our country is of course a far better place from their war prone country and they are taking every bit of advantage in what we are offering them in goodwill...the problems cause here are very damaging to our society and country, they are all over in Malaysia now just like the Iranians

this you can check with bukit aman and wisma putra...they turning to be a hands full to the authorities, ade tahanan kat lokap polis, immigrations and even at the airports. some even have multiple passports.... its very disturbing when they don't respect our government n ministers...kutuk menteri kita kow kow...maki polis, maki immigration kenapa tahan orang2 dia, kalau tak buat salah masakan authorities kite nak tahan deorang..betul ke tak? they act as if they are the masters and we are oblige to help them  with their whims n fancies...they are here on Malaysian and world wakaf grants...tapi masih tak sedar diri lagi...they say they are from a poor country but they don't act like what they seem to be...they are very arrogant and demanding people...more of a blood sucker..! draining our country dry....like l said they demand to have the same privilege as the Malaysian, like the universities academic fees,hospitals and other privileges we enjoy being a local...that's very unfair to other poor nations and our people...if they can afford to travel all the way here, why give them the privilege...giving n offering them scholarships to study here are good enough,which l think should have been given to our qualified students here....as they can serve the country better...ramai orang kite pun susah jugak... 

do you know that their embassy and the ambassador's residence are under Malaysian grant, they are residing in two of our government bungalows in jalan utant? kenapa deorang tak fight on the own land....why come here and demand to be heard and running away to other countries, when they themselves are not doing anything to defend their own country ...cowards l guess....mintak belas kecian dari orang sana sini...bila orang tolong, kutuk lagi ade...kaum yang tak pernah nak berterima kasih..they are very rough n loud people....totally opposite from our people n culture....l personally think the government should put a stop to this...we don't need ruthless n ungrateful people entering our peaceful country...

zaharan, when you write this in your blog, you mustn't reveal my name and where you got the source from. can't think if anything more to write or report to you, but will add when l have more..right now my brain is running blank..hehe maybe am to tired ... "

No Comment is a Comment

by Zaharan Razak on Saturday, January 29, 2011 at 1:00pm

At a fundamental level, we are a mere witness, an observer; at a higher level, we make a stand, and, at some risk, make a statement. The intention is to show appreciation for and support the right and point out the wrong.  At the lowest level are those who have nothing to say, prefer not to out of displeasure or disfavor, or are just shy, lacking in self-confidence being the victims of social bullying, control and repression disguised as the need to teach morals and manners. Out of sheer perversion, some would stick out their tongues and declare, "No comment!" But no comment is a comment. It reveals the pavlovian mindset of a badly-trained dog who just do the opposite of what its trainer wants  the dog to do. It is meant to pull the carpet from under your feet. Fair enough, some noisy and nosy pokers need to be given the short shrift treatment but more often than not it is the failure of many members of society to stand up and make a stand on issues of the day. Number one, they don't follow the news and issues in the first place but even if they do they are afraid to open their mouths and risk be judged. Their motto seems to be, Better to keep my mouth shut and be thought a fool than open it and remove all doubt (Mark Twain?).

Why is it important to make a stand? To share with others similar and differing views on an issue, to open up a debate or discussion on the issue so as to be able to look at the issue from many perspectives to help strengthen the base and premise of one's stand, to fine tune it or abandon it altogether in the light of a more sound one suggested from the debate and discussion. And, that way, we grow. Otherwise, we will forever remain dwarfs, circus clowns, caged canaries existing self-satisfied in our own bubble of a make-belief world.

Of course all of us live in a make-belief world of our own making (often copied from a received or indoctrinated template) but it is a good idea to look over the fence (kandang) and see what's cooking in the neighbor's kitchen.

Call it a reality check if you like.

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Propaganda from Mahomet to Mao

Propaganda: From Mahomet to Mao

by Zaharan Razak on Wednesday, February 16, 2011 at 1:45pm

Belief in any dogma and its propagation follows a familiar path from Mahomet to Mao.

A dogma is an insistence that yours is the only right way, others are wrong or an intransigent attitude saying, ok, you do it your way, I do my way, your belief is your belief, my belief is my belief, without reference to a third-party benchmark as the intransigent party sees it as another trojan horse, conspiracy or the work of the devil himself. It is proof perfect that the chloroform of propaganda has begun to work its effect and the mind is fast losing its rationality.

The route (ingredients): Ascribe absolute power to an absolute Thing, create a hierarchy to dispense the power on a human scale, create a senior-junior, teacher-pupil relationship to drive home the point/agenda, make a virtue of humility (to make the human mind more receptive, the easier to coerce and manipulate), use the cadre/recruit to attract more recruits or as frontliners (e.g. suicide bombers, drum beaters), create a single, mass icon, language and identity, create an opposable enemiy/ies (reminiscent of opposable thumb), make an example of traitors and turncoats, denounce enemies and traitors with equal ferocity even if only verbally and symbolically, ban any materials - books, icons, symbols, images - of other persuasions, replace reality wth fantasy and mythology, replace or do totally without the rules of science with traditional beliefs and practices, laugh off or herd out any deviant or non-conforming oddballs, emphasize the forms (never mind the substance) by the use of rituals, slogans, dressing, chanting, ceremonies, symbolic buildings, visual arts, the use of all-is-well, formulaic, courtly, cliched language, the use of threats and promises, patronage, appeal to guilt, fear and shame, use of name-calling, the use of soft-hard interrogation method, etc.

The purpose: to create a single, monolithic mass appeal, the mass mind, the easier to manipulate, to maintain the status quo and hierarchy of power. It has produced tribes, feudal societies, totalitarian regimes, communism, dictatorships, absolute monarchies, racism, sexism, cults, religions. History is littered with the effects of their onslaught. The only bulwarks that can contain or slow down their lemming rush over the cliff are science, rationality, the arts, democracy and liberal humanism.

Anger Management

Anger Management

by Zaharan Razak on Thursday, February 24, 2011 at 12:59pm

Anger is a rising emotion that tends to spill over into exaggerated behavior like shouting, crying, banging, kicking or even indictable violence like taking the law into your own hands and use of inappropriate language such as vulgarism and obscenities. It is a reaction to a feeling of being wronged, insulted, your rights being transgressed, being betrayed, being oppressed, being suppressed, being unfairly treated, being jealous, bearing a grudge, being affronted, cheated, hurt, being attacked.

There are two kinds of anger, appropriate and inappropriate, and, well, borderline cases! In other words, like most if not all problematic human manifestations, anger is a whole range or spectrum rather than being clearly divided into black and white areas. Many gray areas. But it is useful to start by describing it as appropriate and inappropriate - just so or exaggerated. The key is it should not create more problems or bring in a new set of issues or be committing a new wrong in order to right an old wrong! One gray area is the 'artistic' or creative expression of anger where, for example, it may be somewhat exaggerated, like shouting - remember the primal scream? -  but falls short of physical violence.

Anger is like a sick ancestor who refuses to die and occupies a room in the house of our mind, sleeping most of the time but occasionally waking up demanding attention. It is sleeping in our genes, in our childhood experience, and is awakened by the stresses of daily living. Most of us, most of the time, are mature, experienced and rational enough to manage the rising emotion of anger so as not to disrupt our daily life, cause ill-heath, age prematurely and damage our social relationships.

There are many ways to manage or express anger appropriately. Again, the key is not to bring the roof down on your own head but to subliminate them into healthy activities and outlets such as socializing, sports, hobbies, dieting, consciously and knowledgeably taking care of your health, doing charity or voluntary work, showing kindness and compassion to others including animals and plants and to make a habit of being kind, common courtesy, and of course having a sense of situation humor helps, either of the mild or hilarious kind. Be a riot but don't cause a riot, as it were.   

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  Yap Poh Meng and Sofea Ismail like this.
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    Sofea Ismail Crying helps relieve suppressed anger ...
    

    Thursday at 1:47pm · · 2 peopleLoading...
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    Joedrifter Walker Perhaps that's why they have crying babies in MC?.....
    

    Thursday at 2:57pm ·
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    Yap Poh Meng Anger followed by vulgarism and obscenities are replacement of the deficiencies in one. An intellectual would controll his anger and thrash it out in a rational manner.
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    Thursday at 3:57pm · · 1 personLoading...
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    Rohiman Haroon

    Orang Melayu, too, are famous for anger that the colonial British learnt and took the word "amok" into the Queen's English vocabulary. The story was like this: After seeing too many of these hysterical behaviours particularly amongst Mal...ay men running amok with parangs, Stamford Raffles curiously and quickly asked his subordinates what kind of hysterical behaviour that was. They came back to Raffles and told him that there was no such word in English to describe the behaviour. He then approached Abdullah Munshi (or Munshi's son) how to describe the behaviour. Abdullah Munshi replied: "If I tell you, would you mind tell Her Majesty The Queen that I was the one who invented the word." He spilled out the word and to his amazement, Raffles took weeks to ponder on the word. He kept on coming back to Abdullah Munshi to ask and then praised that it was such a wonderful but mind boggling word to describe a delirious and violent behaviour in such a short syllable word. In returning to England, he saw a pasqual running amok and being a witness to the crime, he told the police that the behaviour was amok. In the courts, he used the word again and the word was picked up by a daily news reporter, who then described in detail how the word ämok derived. If you go to Sussex Garden today where a lot of historical Malay documents were compiled and stolen, you'd find the word amok was annotated and absorbed into the English Language only later at the turn of 20th century as it was debated over and over by English linguists and psychiatrists alike. Much to our dismay, the name of Abdullah Munshi never surfaced in those intellectual discourse. I am sure Abdullah Munshi must be swearing from his grave. But alas, the word was not his in the first place. Two sen from me. Cheers.See More

    
    

    Thursday at 4:01pm · · 5 peopleLoading...
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    Zaharan Razak Reminds me of Adam Jaafar and Botak Chin ...
    

    Thursday at 5:49pm ·
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    Kamariah Haroon where did u get the story? did u concoct it urself?
    

    Thursday at 10:23pm ·
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    Zaharan Razak If he concoct it, it is a good one, kihkih! If it is true, he is a good ferret to dig out obscure and forgotten nuggets of info :-)
    

    Yesterday at 12:16am ·
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    Rohiman Haroon Heard it from Mana Sikana in one of his literary public lectures. I laughed my heart out...it is comedic tragedy, really.
    

    Yesterday at 1:20am

Skitterish Amateur Video

Amateur Video

by Zaharan Razak on Friday, February 25, 2011 at 1:06pm

Just saw a news clip of a video recording of the Christchurch earthquake taken by a Japanese tourist. The camera jumps from shot to shot with less rhyme and reason than the jerky flight of a butterfly!

Nowadays video taking capability is in everyone's hands. Unfortunately, taking videos is not just about pressing the dedicated video button and dart from shot to shot like you would do with your naked eyes.

Video taking, if you want to produce a coherent sequence or story, must follow a few simple rules. Like writing, video taking has its own laguage or ABCs. I know it is the culture of young people, and some adults who overstay their youth like some wakil rakyats overstay their tenure, not to give a damn for rules, hence the atrocious writing on FB and elsewhere online. Just because publishing is now open to the rakyat and not the exclusive enclave of professionals, the concern of the pros that the masses will make a mess of the medium as well as the message has become a reality! Talk of giving a flower to a monkey!

All forms of communication have rules in order to facilitate and smoothen the process of conveying the message or meaning. But humans have a load of complexes to unload and deposit by the wayside and so in using communication to convey a message they are just as wont to want to not to convey the message but disguise it, cut it into halves and quarters, confuse it, mislead, tease and be in cahoots with a a select reader or group of readers/listeners as a tactic to alienate others! Sigh. Such is convoluted human nature or simple arrested juvenile growth!

Or else the communication suffers from a simple lack of knowledge and skill. Rarely though does it stay at that level or else it could easily be overcome by a few simple steps of study. But, no, to continue the theme of convoluted human reasoning, the communicator refuses to learn his art and is even proud being ignorant of the rules. They love the mass culture of 'pakai hentam'!

With the advent and popularity of the Internet and social networking facilities such as blogging, FB and Twitter, writing and picture taking has now gone egalitarian, a tool of the masses. For many, writing and picture taking is a necessary evil in whose rules they have not the slightest interest. What they are more interested in is the connecting and any which way will do, the one with the least line of resistance being the best, thus, you get, huhu.....eerrrmm,,,,,?! ak///jew...)))):_)))!!!nok mok tok .... etcetera, etcetera. And, sigh, it is these guerilla-gorilla--chewy-gummy language which elicits the largest fan mail!

Just watch the paltry response this note will get! I count myself lucky to get even one!

One would like to to think that there is a rich vein of potential interest in taking a short course, even if only for a day, in video taking or reading a short pamphlet on the basic rules of video taking, but no, any sit-down and mug discipline is anathema to mass followers, it reminds too much of coercive school culture, that deadening and sterile land where all curiosity and interest are like a cup of water poured into desert sands.

This trend is the great flattening and leveling of the cultural landscape where mass culture is in the hands of the masses where the elitist culture of Shakespeare, Omar Khayyam, Socrates, Aristotle, Khalil Gibran are no longer appreciated or relevant, or are they?

What Is Philosophy?

Philosophy is an ability to look at everything that jostle to affect you - events, other people, your feelings, moods and thoughts - as not affecting you, as being a part of your psycho dynamics and yet are not you. It is a hard-and-easy-to-attain ability to detach and see yourself as a separate being from all that is happening around and inside of you.

Hard because it requires constant practice. Easy because it is easy enough to understand and accept. When you are saying my friend, my husband, my feeling, my mood, my body, you might as well say my handbag, my house, my car. Now you know as well as I do your car and all your possessions including the nice shopping bag you sayang to throw away may be extensions of you but they are not you and quite separate from you. You may lose a handbag or break a cup. So what, you're still intact.

Same truth applies to events, people and your interior monologue - feelings, moods and thoughts. They come and go. Most you pass or they come to pass with nary a second thought or glance. Some stay around a bit longer. But none lasts. Whether you leave first or outlast them, it drives home the point the truth that they are separate from you.

Mind you, there's a certain utility in feeling an affinity with events, people, things ... and thoughts. Just like reading a good novel or watching a good movie with which you can identify your own feelings and therefore feel close, so it is with one's life. But at the end of the day, you realize the book is just a book, the movie a movie, and you are still standing apart however close you came to the brink or even cross it into the world of the book and the movie. What you did was to temporarily suspend reality or disbelief and enter into a world of make-belief.

This is the crux of philosophy. The ability to switch from one world, one realm, of reality into another, simultaneously if need be. Two in one, if you like. The ability to feel one with things and yet being strongly aware of your detachment and separation gives you flexibility, versatility, stereo-vision (alright, AJY may prefer to call it Panavision), the ability to see two sides of a coin, as opposed to having tunnel vision or a monolithic view on life.

Philosophy is the last stage in which the learning mind arrives. The growing mind had gone through sensations, perceptions, ego identity, knowledge expansion, settled into comfortable grooves according to received wisdom, belief systems and life's experiences all of which provide  data to form an image of the self. But this restless and wandering self - the soul if you like - the ultimate 'I' behind all phenomena with which you can no more say my 'I' and still make sense as you still can saying my self, my feeling, my life, whatever, is the sum total of your consciousness and more, being greater than the sum of its parts.

This 'I' is indestructible and is the one that survives physical death. In one word, it is consciousness or sense of self. The 'I' of the Dung Beetle, as I call it. You may choose to give it your own pet name (wink).

It should be clear from the above drift that neither possession, nor mathematical genius, nor a gift of music, nor good, nor evil (to be fair, as saints and sinners are assigned, they didn't choose to be), nor beliefs can ensure or enhance your final form but that it must be filtered through philosophy, the ability to feel detachment and closeness, sympathy and empathy, objectivity and compassion, simultaneously.

It is the final conduit through which your soul squeezes through to go to the next existential realm.

Note of Appreciation: The above words are a mere dressing up of thoughts triggered by AJY in the course of a dinner in, of all places, Jalan Alor!

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  Sofea Ismail likes this.
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    Al Jafree Yusop My friend, you've written it in a way that can be shared with a lot other 'I's. I'm in a constant state of learning from your knowledge and wisdom, heartbreaks and joy. May you have similar experiences with yours truly as well.
    

    5 hours ago · · 1 personLoading...
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    Sofea Ismail I am learning a lot from him too ....
    

    4 hours ago ·
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    Zaharan Razak I look forward to sharing experiences with you guys ...
    

    2 hours ago ·
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    Nusrat Al-Jafree

    when I'm sad or depressed, the philosophy I have learned seems disappeared from my knowledge...is one of my weaknesses...today I cried whole day since morning for my lost persian cat (the white one) I blamed myself, I blamed my loving husba...nd, I asked the same questions like I was not learning anything through out my life, again and again...I was at war with myself, people, God, for the pain I was suffering...I know exactly why I was behaving that way, it was the pain of loosing what/whom you love dearly, the attachment one clings to...though I understand the philosophy quite well, still, it wasn't easy to make peace with yourself, it wasn't easy to forgive people, it wasn't easy to accept the fact that God doesn't really interfere with our choice and decision.See More

    
    

    about an hour ago ·
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Is Eating Pork Hazardous To Your Health?

http://www.newswithviews.com/Ciola/greg8.htm.
Zaharan Razak

As the article says, people are divided on whether eating pork is hazardous to your health. Equally impressive arguments, some spurious, many fallacious, are arraigned on both sides of the divide. Personally, I don't eat pork for religious ...and cultural reasons, but I've nothing against the animal or people who do. All food, if eaten incorrectly, are hazardous to health. The beef against beef, for instance, is well known. Hindus avoid eating beef in toto just as Muslims avoid eating pork in toto. Vegetarians would put forward the case all food of animal origin is a health hazard, quite apart from ethical considerations. As the article asserts, the beef against pork should also include shellfish including your favorite prawns as they feed off dead matter off the sea/swamp/river beds but then so do fish, bottom or mid-water feeding! I've seen fish feeding on human feces if you ask me. To me human waste and the waste of other animals are part of the food cycle. We eat plants which draw its nutrients from decaying matter. Spore process drinking water from waste water. Awso Sporeans eat pork! So do the majority (a reasonable assumption) of the peoples of the world and for thousands of years too! So why single out the pig? Duh!See More

14 hours ago · · 2 people

Zaharan Razak

In Malaysia, majority (a reasonable assumption) of the Chinese eat pork. Statistically, Chinese are healthier than Malays who don't eat pork, physically, socially and mentally. Most cases of baby dumping, drug addiction, smoking, petty crim...es, corruption, politicking, dropping out from schools, being low-achievers, lacking in choices for recreational and sports outlets, forms of exercise like tai chi, chi kung, yoga, are to be found among the Malays. The average life span of the Chinese is higher than that of the Malays. China is the oldest continuous civilization. And how the Chinese love pork! So do the Koreans and Japanese, the other two great industrial nations on whom we non-pork-eating Malays depend for their technology. If pork is bad, then they should depend on us and not the other way round! Betui tak!

14 hours ago · · 3 people


Karl Anwar: Tak betoi. Me too, respect their (pork-eater) right to consume pork or its derivatives, be it in the form of bacon strips, ham, salami, peperoni to name a few delicacy from swine's flesh. I'm OK to use same utensil when visit my Chinese friends.

To single out Moslems as only group of pork-sensitive since 14 centuries ago is a grave misrepresent as the Jewish since Moses (at least if not long long time before Mosaic era).

I wonder how non-kosher secular Jewish to slaughter the hog  :}) Extremely difficult to observe Kashrut  law in the aforementioned case as hog's thorax so thick.

Zaharan Razak: I agree with your observations except for the points I've written in red below:

On Tue, Feb 8, 2011 at 2:49 PM, Mohd Khairul Anwar Hussain <karlanwar@gmail.com> wrote:

Tak betoi. Me too, respect their (pork-eater) right to consume pork or its derivatives, be it in the form of bacon strips, ham, salami, peperoni to name a few delicacy from swine's flesh. I'm OK to use same utensil when visit my Chinese friends.

To single out Moslems as only group of pork-sensitive since 14 centuries ago is a grave misrepresent as the Jewish since Moses (at least if not long long time before Mosaic era).

I did not say Muslims ARE THE ONLY group, nor was I representing any group. I don't even represent myself let alone others. That is a wrong report of what I said. Read carefully again! Quote me the words! I was reporting objective facts that started to happen 1400 years before I was born and happening in many parts of the world where I've never been so I base my observations on what I read written by others who in turn got the info from others who got it from others and so on.. The tradition of knowledge. It is not important whether I'm right or wrong. The reported facts speak for themselves. Got nothing to do with me. I'm just a witness, a reporter representing nobody! Betui tak!?

Karl Anwar: Bro, I hate corrupt more than pork. No pork hater nor anti-canine

Ken Chin I don't know about if pork contribute to anything, but I can be sure that anything excessively applied will kill... including health, moral & intellectual...

Sufian Pua Tabik Zaharan....very interesting indeed. IF I am not mistaken, in time of emergency like you will die if there is nothing to eat, Muslim can eat it. Am I right?10 hours ago · · 1 person

Zaharan Razak Righto! And of course anything in excess, alcohol included, is bad. A glass of red wine a day is good for your health. So is beer. If you break any health rule, you're personally responsible. A health rule should not be a sanction to impose on the whole population on the pain of going to hell! Now that is turning a simple rule of living into living hell or an instrument of power, politics and people sanction, the holier than thou arrogance ...10 hours ago · · 2 people

Hew Yoonloong

not forgetting that europeans like the germans, love their pork as well. germans also make some of the best pork sausages. and it has not affected their ability to be good ( with technology) or bad (with ww2).
yr point is valid - but nutter...s exist in all shapes and color - they should loosen up, eat some shellfish, enjoy their sex, love their pots and quit preaching to others. But they cannot! they are aflamed!! maybe when they agitate enough, they might just be inflamed?

9 hours ago · · 2 people

Yap Poh Meng ZR well said and thank you for an interesting discourse from all. .I wonder if other muslims , especially the goatee have given thoughts to it.

Zaharan Razak

YPM: Naw ... it is politically incorrect for them ... they will probably have to find new employers or be self-employed if they talk like me ... LOL!
HWL: Agree. Been as close with the Germans as your imagination allows you and I can confirm... they are very, very clean ... their bathroom and toilet are the cleanest and driest room in the house! They spread out towels on the floor. I felt like an upcountry Orang Asli when I first stepped into one many, many years ago. I tell ya, I prefer porkeaters than lotuseaters (wink).See More

5 hours ago · · 1 person

Yap Poh Meng Many years ago, While still in service, I passed the same remarks that the pork eating countries are very much advance in tech and economy. it was not well accepted and of course some nasty remarks were passed towards me. This is rather sensitive to some and most muslim would refrain from discussing it.4 hours ago ·

Zaharan Razak

Being in denial mode, being sensitive or unwilling to admit to you're wrong is a common recourse of peoples who are saddled with upholding a falsehood which happens to be their traditional or religious beliefs. This denial is in the classic... mode of the emperor's new dress or the cow crap for King Solomon's saffron rice. And they have been at it for more than 1400 years and will carry their sensitivity millstone around their necks for the next fourteen hundred years and beyond. The cost? Retarded growth or poor self-belief, the very reason for their low-achievement and low-productivity. 


Zaharan Razak Also reminds me of the story of the adult elephant who thinks the sapling his master ties him to is the same tree he was tied to when he was a baby elephant.

   

The Story of Man and Pig Thus Far

Homo sapiens has been around for at least 200,000 years and it is reasonable to assume that pigs, wild and later domesticated, form one of his food sources for just as long and right from the beginning. If so, I think it is an insult to biological humans and an act that does not show filial respect to our ancestors, when, some 1400 years ago, some johnny-came-lately declared that humans cannot eat pigs if they want to go to heaven! Does it mean then our porcine-loving ancestors would all go to hell and half of the world's population today?

Johnny Last also imposed strict rules on the keeping of dogs so much so that most of his followers avoid dogs like the plague thus missing out on the experience of bonding with the first and most versatile animal that humans has ever tamed. These two traditions exemplify the inscrutable and logic-defying nature of many if not all the rules and precepts of Johnny's teachings. But the use of the stick and carrot, promise and threat means of persuasion, appealing to membership, common identity and authority-on-high always works on the mass mind and mass movements, in this case religions. In Johnny's religion it may be pigs and dogs, in another it is myths and stories used as common currency to whip up conformity and the adoption of make-beliefs as a surrogate for failure to think clearly and accept reality.

The True Believer, by Eric Hoffer

Abandoned by its mother who may have come to grief at the hands of hunters, a baby orang hutan clings to the leg and later bosom of one of its caretakers, Michelle Yeoh, even if only during her brief for-the-media visit to Sepilok, Sabah. Feeling orphaned and inadequate, the baby orang hutan readily transfers her need for a mother figure to any surrogate mother that is any human who shows care and concern. This need and trait is common to most if not all primates, the biological order of which we are a member.

Similarly, a human who feels overwhelmed by the vastness and complexities of existence, not to mention his own personal inadequacies and shortfalls, would seek and cling to a cause, group, tribal identity or mass movement to sink and hide his sorrows in. The psychological benefits he gets from  being a joiner of the cause or mass movement such as political parties, religions or racial identity are that other members would approve and clap his words and actions. He may also gain status, a position of power and influence stemming from the group.

As a member he is required to have the same beliefs and opinions on most if not all issues. Anyone who expresses conflicting beliefs and opinions are labeled heretics and become liable or fair game for persecution. A cadre with an eye for a higher position, popularity with his peers or approval from higher ups will expose and denounce the heretic, making a song and dance of it if not a career.

A common tactic is to appeal to peers and get them to clap or at least utter, "Attaboy, Mommy boy! Here's my tommy-gun to add gum to your chew!" Or words to that effect.

In the extreme form, these cadres are the fanatics who would die for their cause than be labeled a heretic, an outcast, or be insulted by one such as the body guard who shot his protege because the latter made a heretical statement appealing for the life of a woman who had been given the death penalty for insulting a mass movement of which the guard was a member. In another case, a cadre says, You may cut my neck off, but don't cut my hair please. Why? Because having his hair snipped is tantamount to having his manhood razored off. This is the belief of the cause or mass movement of which he is a member. Suicide bombers are spawned from the same zealot lot, or should I say, milked from the same ilk.

Many a movie and novel has played up this theme - I apologize for not being able to give any examples right now - but there is one non-fiction work that I know which explores this deep psychological sickness in the human psyche: The True Believer, by Eric Hoffer. Just google it.