Alaa, the detained Egyptian blogger, blogging from his cell

I wonder, despite the Malaysian government and its toadies claim on our being a country with strong ICT, getting access to internet would be difficult in our Malaysian jails. Especially when Internet penetration is still rather low in most areas here. Anyway, read the story by following the link below:

http://www.manalaa.net/alaa_blogs_from_prison

Iran and badge hoax ala the Nazis.

This following the big cartoon hoohah in many Muslim dominant countries. I suppose they wouldn't be too concerned here since no holy person is being blasphemed or slandered. Just the "model" Islamic country.

_____________________________________________________________________________________
Iran summons Canadian ambassador in dress-code row
AFP
Wed May 24, 12:38 PM ET

Iran summoned Ottowa's ambassador to Tehran over criticisms made by Canada's premier in response to an inaccurate news report that Iran aimed to force a dress code on non-Muslims.

"Canadians are following a bad trend. We have summoned the Canadian ambassador and objected to the Canadian prime minister's unwise comments," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said according to the ISNA news agency.

"We invite the Canadians to be deeper in their comments. It is not good for an official to make comments based on wrong information," he added.

The report appeared Friday in Canada's National Post newspaper, alleging that Iran had approved a law to force non-Muslims to wear colored badges in public so they could be identified.

Canadian premier Stephen Harper reacted by saying he had only seen reports about the law but that he would not be surprised by them.

"Unfortunately, we have seen enough already from the Iranian regime to suggest that it is very capable of this kind of action," he said.

"It think it boggles the mind that any regime on the face of the earth would want to do anything that could remind people of Nazi Germany," Harper added.

The newspaper had quoted human rights groups as saying the public dress code would require non-Muslims to wear special insignia.

Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians would be forced to wear a yellow, red or blue strip of cloth, respectively, on the front of their clothes, it said.

However, the report was quickly and strongly denied by Iran's only Jewish MP, Maurice Motammed.

"This report is a complete fabrication and is totally false... It is a lie, and the people who invented it wanted to make political gain" by doing so," he told AFP.

Motammed said he had been present in parliament when a bill to promote "an Iranian and Islamic style of dress for women" was voted. "In the law, there is no mention of religious minorities," he added.

Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AFP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Agence France Presse.


__________________________________________________________________________________
National Post apologizes for anti-Iran story
-Reuters
Wed May 24, 12:31 PM ET

A Canadian newspaper apologized on Wednesday for a story that said Iran planned to force Jews and other religious minorities to wear distinctive clothing to distinguish themselves from Muslims.

The conservative National Post ran the story on its front page last Friday along with a large photo from 1944 which showed a Hungarian couple wearing the yellow stars that the Nazis forced Jews to sew to their clothing.

The story, which included tough anti-Iran comments from prominent Jewish groups, was picked up widely by Web sites and by other media.

"Is Iran turning into the new Nazi Germany? Share your opinion online," the paper asked readers last Friday.

But the National Post, a long-time supporter of Israel and critic of Tehran, admitted on Wednesday it had not checked the piece thoroughly enough before running it.

"It is now clear the story is not true," National Post editor-in-chief Douglas Kelly wrote in a long editorial on page 2. "We apologize for the mistake and for the consternation it has caused not just National Post readers, but the broader public who read the story."

The story was based on a column by Iranian expatriate writer Amir Taheri, who said a law being debated by Iran's parliament would force Jews to sew a yellow strip of cloth to their clothes. Christians would wear a red strip while Zoroastrians would wear a blue one.

Iranian legislators dismissed the story.

The story and the column appeared at a time when the international community is pressuring Tehran over its nuclear program. Iran is also under fire for comments by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in which he doubted the scale of the Holocaust.

Asked about the Post story last Friday, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Iran "is very capable of this kind of action." He added: "It boggles the mind that any regime on the face of the Earth would want to do anything that could remind people of Nazi Germany."

A spokesman for Harper said the prime minister had started off his comments with the words "If this is true."

When you are at sea... Part 1

I know that I am a Malaysian, but beyond that I have no identity. I have no first language, and a strong heritage to anything to call my own. Even if I have a strong affinity to the English Language, its cultural load comes to me but second hand, through books I read, through travels and the mass media. Malaysia does not quite have a culture in English, even during our colonial past. Whatever "Englishness" we have is shallow and based on stereotypical and rose-tinted assumptions on the land. Some anglophiles who might have never visited the land think that it had not changed in the last 50 years, some only acquaint themselves with the richer class and areas and some perhaps hold on to a dream of greener pastures. Anyhow, my post here is not to talk about Englishness, the English Language or Anglophiles, beyond that which is relevant to me. Because, from the time I was a young child, I was an Anglophile, until my growing years cast aside the fairytale and reality hits. I was more acquainted with the literature of England and its neighbours than I was with the literature of the region I grew up in. Perhaps it could be due to the influence exerted by my mother. She never told me about anything that might pertain to my heritage, either as a Chinese or a Malaysian. She decided that the schools will do that job for her. Or perhaps, being educated in an English-medium, girls school through her growing years had alienated her from her roots. But I ask, you ask, what roots? That, my dear readers, is the core and centre of my dilemma.

Despite my activism, despite my interest in Malaysian history (come lately) and culture, despite all that I try to do to acquaint myself further with this land of exotic possibilities, I remain defeated. True enough, I was educated in the national schools, in the years when the nationalists held sway, when English was derided and relegated to the back burner and Malay is the "it" language. But, why is it then, that I can no longer bury myself in its idiom, its heritage and its soul? When I write in that language, I do not have the cultural scaffold, or backbone, to support my immersion into that language. Despite the fact that the very first story I wrote, at the age of 9, was written in Malay, and full of imaginaries gleaned from the Malay story books I read. Now, my language has become course, has become post-modern and so very unrefined. Lacking, as my friends say, the feel and root of Malayness. Going by the policies and acceptable norms in this country, am I doomed to obscurity should I ever propose to produce literary works in Malay? Or do I have to go to some village and live among the people to capture their rhythm as they go about their lives?

What about the Chinese Language or culture? Alas, my almost illiterate grasp of the written form has made it harder to acquaint myself with the ins and outs of the Chinese culture, beyond hearsay and oral transmission. I have tried learning a traditinal Chinese instrument, took up Chinese martial arts for awhile in a class taught by a teacher from China, and even mix with many Chinese-centric friends with strong roots in their culture (unlike myself) just to see if I can find my "roots". I know I feel alienated when talking to my older relatives because I lack enough vocabulary for a smooth conversation (except periods when I've been so immersed in the language that the words just come pouring out), and had been poked fun at by Chinese friends who used me as an easy target for teasing and bullying due to my inability to defend myself properly in that tongue (this was during my school years). It is only recently that my vocabulary has expanded, though my reading and writing skills are still, alas, elementary.


Though I am not a Malay by birth, I feel more at home with the language than I do in Chinese. In fact, I have less problems conversing with old Malay folks who speak only Malay than old Chinese folks that speak only Chinese. IN fact, there was a time when I knew many Malay proverbs, but had discarded knowledge of them when I though I would concentrate on the sciences, because I did not feel accepted by most in the community while at a local university. Nevertheless, I'll never be accepted as part of the race, because of my ethnicity and religion.

Now, let's go back to talking about being an Anglophile. I used to think in varied languages, though the dominant language I think in is English. But so what? I may never gain employment from majoring in English because the poor quality of English education I have received. My parents could not afford to send me to elite schools, and I was never accepted to any elite boarding schools in my country. And I was too ignorant and too ordinary to get scholarships to elite schools elsewhere. As I said earlier, my acquaintance with the baggage carried by the English Language in its original form is second hand, but I can placate myself with the fact that English is no longer the language of the Anglos but also of everyone else worldwide. We use proper grammar (and that, I sometimes still have problems with) but we can insert whatever the colour that we wish into the dialect.

Anyway, I've to get to work. So, this will continue...

Indigenous/Indigent

Someone posted to a list I was in on the issue of the Western Shoshone people and their land rights issue. I posted this question to a cultural studies list I was on and a few exchanges had taken place which I would like to paste here.

------------------------------Begin thread-------------------------------------------
From: Clarissa Lee
Hi everyone,
I've been receiving mails on the goings-on at Nevada regarding the Western Shoshone community. Below was the blog attached. Is anyone here researching this issue or know what is really going on? To hear of such systematic genocide by the US govt of its own citizens is very disturbing, to say the least, if it reaches the extend where the UN has to step in.

http://www.theecologist.org/blog.asp?admin_id=16

But then, I suppose this is nothing new.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Stevienna de Saille
Normally, I just lurk here, but I felt compelled to answer Clarissa.

I have worked with Shundahai, one of the organisations mentioned by this
article, and attended the annual gathering at the Test Site a couple of
years running, back in the late 90s. Shundahai is a mixed group of Native
and non-Native activists, led by Corbin Harney, a Shoshone elder, as the
spiritual center. They keep close ties to the Western Shoshone Defence
Project, which is Carrie Dann's group -- I have met Corbin a number of
times, even hosted him on a speaking tour, but I met the Dann sisters only
once, about ten years ago. Shundahai, btw, are a splendid group of people -
as a radical direct-action activist, I was quite used to working with groups
with a lot of internal friction, personality conflicts and paranoia. Working
with Shundahai was the most harmonious political experience of my life, and
I would credit a lot of that to Corbin, and to the organisation's immense
respect for the Shoshone people and their ways.

The entire Nevada Test Site is on Shoshone land, so bombing them is nothing
new. The last time I was out there, the US was planning to start
sub-critical testing again. Their excuse is that the land is empty, which to
white eyes I suppose it is -- desert people tend to live quite far apart as
the land can only support so much life in concentrated areas. (I will
refrain here from raging at Phoenix and Las Vegas.) Oh yes, and they are
"only Injuns". Every year for I don't know how many now -- more than 20, I
should think -- Shundahai stages a three day protest at the Test Site around
Mother's Day weekend. Everyone is issued with a permit from the Shoshone
Nation to camp on their land (mimicking the BLM who claim to own it), and
there are a number of actions from simple mass trespass to full blockade.
You can have a look at their website for the action they're planning against
"Divine Strake" - http://www.shundahai.org/divine_strake.htm.

I wish I could say this situation was unique in Indian Country, but it is
very far from it. Bomb tests, livestock impoundments, water diversions and
destruction of the aquifer, forced relocations, the planned largest nuclear
waste site at Yucca Mountain, which is also Native land, and sacred (in a
state which has no nuclear power plants of its own) -- the list of issues is
staggering. And that is before you even get to the basics of health, housing
and education. The more time I spent in the Southwest, the more appalled I
became. And this was under the Clinton Administration, which was not exactly
Indian-friendly either, so I can't imagine how bad things have become under
The Shrub and His Minions.

I also couldn't tell you how many cases were put to the UN during the Decade
for Indigenous People, which resulted in a few toothless declarations of
support and not a lot more. I later worked with an international group who
went to the UN asking for the release of Leonard Peltier, a Lakota political
prisoner, and a stop to the relocation of the Big Mountain Navajo. The UN
eventually created the Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous People which
seemed like a very useful thing at the time. Ten or so years on, Peltier is
still in prison and some very few Navajo are still barely hanging on to
their land. So, while I'm glad the UN is speaking out for the Shoshone, I
suspect the word "bomb" has a lot more to do with it than justice. However,
in the present political climate, maybe that's exactly the word that's
needed to finally get something done.

If anyone wants to learn something about Native American issues, I'd highly
recommend Ward Churchill's "Struggle for the Land: (about land rights issues
and the environment) or Annette Jaimes' "The State of Native America"
(simlar to the Churchill, but more based around social issues). Both books
are more than ten years old, but sadly, despite the last thirty years of
increasingly sophisticated activism, very little has changed. There is also
a good page at the Shundahai site to get you started on what's available on
the net: http://www.shundahai.org/indigenous_issues.htm

Thanks for listening. I will now return to my customary lurker's place in
the corner.

Stevie

Stevienna de Saille
Center for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies
University of Leeds
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Clarissa Lee
Hi Stevie,
Thanks for that very enlightening post. Malaysia, where I am from, is also facing some critical issues with regards to its indigenous people, ranging from the pressure to conform themselves to the politically-defined, hegemonic "indigenous" groups who subscribe to a particular cultural and religious beliefs, and forced abandonment of their customs. Though their rights are recognised by the law and Constitution, in reality, they are treated as footholds by those in power. In fact, some of the so-called "leaders" of these indigenous people have been subtly bribed to forced the silent obedience of these people. Not to mention that many of these people had to suffer the dire consequences of logging in their lands, caused by logging companies that are linked in some ways to the government. Highways, dams and many infrastructures have found their way into the lands of these people, who were then compensated with bungalows and transient material goodies even as they'd lost their lands forever.
But then, this brings up the evergoing argument that we should not prevent progress of these people. But then, what is progress if it is your definition that you have forced down their throats, depriving of their basic rights while telling them that you are doing things for their own good. Giving them no voice in the parliament or make any effort to understand the roots of their culture that is extremely deep, to know what makes them tick and how should change work best for them, instead of using the same yardstick of change applied to cultures that are so very different from theirs. Anyhow, they have been assimilated into the dominant discourse but are actuallly the neglected subaltern other, rendered invisible. There are some works done on these issues here, though not too many as yet.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Stevienna de Saille
t does seem to be the same story for indigenous people almost everywhere,
doesn't it? I have some aboriginal friends in Australia and when we talk
about their lives, it's so much the same story as well. The only place I
have been to that seems a slight exception was New Zealand, though the Maori
have very similar issues with land rights and cultural preservation. But I
was surprised at the level of knowledge about Maori people that most pakeha
(a non-pejorative word for white people) had, right down to a number of
Maori words, including pakeha, being so integrated into the language that I
had some trouble reading the newspapers.

That may simply be a matter of smaller population in NZ overall, so Maori
cultural paradigms are more clearly felt. It may be mere political
correctness, with no real gain for the Maori behind it, but it really didn't
feel like that. There was something else in NZ, a feeling I can't quite put
my finger on.

In Modest_Witness, Donna Haraway talked about the failure of land
negotiations between the Wik aboriginal people and the white settlers being
based in an inability of both to understand what "The Land" implied in the
imaginary of the other. I think NZ might be the opposite, that despite their
other differences and the still vastly unequal position of the Maori within
'New Zealand', 'Aoteoroa' *does* occupy a similar place in the imaginary of
both Maori and pakeha, and provides a conceptual meeting ground. That, and
the fact that neither can claim to be original, may be why the Maori have
been able to come quite far politically in a relatively short time
(particularly with comparison to the US), and why the two cultures felt to
me as if they are slowly evolving towards a national identity both can
share.

I see there are New Zealanders on this list, perhaps they'll correct any
misapprehensions I may have?

Stevie
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Alan Meek
Hi Stevie

There are very important differences in the ways that Maori and pakeha
understand place and history in New Zealand, although the official
state policies of Biculturalism have certainly advanced the political
recognition of Maori over the past two decades. There are also ongoing
land claims by Maori that, while remaining controversial, do represent
significant progress in redressing the injustices of the past.

However, we should certainly avoid idealising the cultural and
political situation here. There have been strong indications that
public opinion is widely against the recognition of Maori grievance.
There are also dominant economic interests that would simply assimilate
Maori culture into commodified forms of "uniqueness" in the global
marketplace. So I don't believe there is really a common recognition
of the meaning of land and identity on the part of Maori and pakeha in
Aotearoa--I'm not even sure that would be desirable, as it may even
confuse moving toward social justice in this country.

Allen Meek
Massey University
New Zealand
----------------------------------end thread-----------------------------------------

So, what do you make of the above exchanges?

Everyone is crying for the candy

Everyone wants to have a bit in denouncing Amir Muhammad's documentary on Chin Peng, that infamous communist leader of Malaya, because they felt wronged by the latter, or that the leader was of the wrong race.

The police could not forgive him for murdering members of their close-knit ranks.

Some nationalist felt that Chin Peng has caused too many destruction to warrant a place in history, and that he should be forgotten and ignored(notwithstanding the fact that his autobiography is out for sale in this country, though I haven't seen it in awhile).

The Malay fascists were incensed that Amir, a Malay, dare to do a documentary about someone of another race

And there is this ongoing debate about who is more worthy to be featured in a documentary. This feels a little like the school's moral studies class.

And also both sides trying to argue that Chin Peng has no place in our history books, nor in our freedom fighting.

Sigh...I cease to care to comment further.

Why can't I ever live my life in peace without caring about a bunch of people who want to make life difficult for themselves

Jangankan nasi menjadi hangus: Lokasi Agama Dalam Ideologi Negara

Oleh Kartini


Berdasarkan pemantauan kerajaan Malaysia bagi tahun 2000, 60.4 peratus populasi di Malaysia dikatakan adalah penganut Islam, 19.2 peratus adalah Buddha, 9.1 peratus penganut Kristian, 6.3 peratus adalah penganut Hindu dan 2.6 peratus lagi adalah penganut Konfusianisme, Taoisme dan agama-agama tradisional Cina. Selainnya merupakan penganut-penganut Sikh, Baha’i dan lain-lain yang tidak tersenarai. Tetapi, dari senarai di atas, Buddha, Konfusianisme, dan Taoisme bukanlah agama, tetapi falsafah yang berpusatkan manusia dan alamnya. Sikh dan Baha’i pula merupakan fahaman yang berdasarkan tok guru yang telah mempopularkan ajaran mereka sehingga menjadi satu agama. Tetapi, berdasarkan pandangan berciri materialis, agama muncul disebabkan ketidakpuasan dengan ketidakadilan dan kejahilan dalam masyarakat.

Mengikut Stephen Hunt dalam bukunya Religion and Everyday Life, sumber emosi yang mencirikan pengamalan ritual dalam agama merupakan perasaan yang dialami oleh manusia ‘primitif’ dalam kehadiran sesuatu yang dianggap mistikal dan misterius yang telah diberikan nama “mana”, sebuah perkataan Polynesian. Mana membawa maksud rasa gentar yang bercampur-aduk dengan rasa takjub terhadap alam duniawi dan fenomena yang wujud dalamnya. Berdasarkan tafsiran sedemikian, kita boleh misalkan falsafah manusia yang bercirikan ajaran kehidupan, yang tidak berdasarkan deity mahupun tuhan, juga adalah agama. Maka, semua yang diperihalkan di atas boleh diklasifikasi sebagai agama. Juga, biasanya penganutan agama-agama ini di Malaysia dihubung-kaitkan dengan pecahan kumpulan-kumpulan kaum dan etnik. Apa yang biasanya hilang dari wacana sebegini ialah kecairan dan kompleksiti sesuatu agama yang mempunyai mazhab-mazhab berbeza, dan juga penganut-peganutnya yang tidak boleh diacukan dengan jelas mengikut kaum.

Menurut laporan Biro Demokrasi, Jabatan Hak Asasi Manusia dan Buruh kerajaan Amerika Syarikat yang bertajuk “International Religious Freedom Report 2003”, kebanyakan penganut agama yang lain dari Islam menduduki Malaysia Timur dan pusat-pusat bandar. Malaysia Timur mempunyai paling ramai etnik bergelar bumiputera yang menganuti agama Kristian, disebabkan populasi mereka yang kebanyakannya tertumpu di situ, walaupun proses penghijrahan telah membawa mereka ke Semenanjung. Latar ini akan menjadi penting apabila saya membincangkan tentang layanan kerajaan Semenanjung terhadap kaum bumiputera bukan Islam ini.

Pada 30hb Oktober 2005, akhbar New Straits Times telah menerbitkan satu artikel yang melaporkan apa yang telah berlangsung dalam Persidangan Ketujuh Persekutuan Kristian Malaysia (Christian Federation of Malaysia atau CFM), di mana ahli-ahli persidangan telah membincangkan kebimbangan mereka terhadap kekurangan perpaduan antara kumpulan-kumpulan masyarakat di Malaysia. Adakah sekarang masanya untuk semua pertubuhan agama di negara ini keluar dari persembunyian mereka dan mula menyuarakan sesuatu tentang penyakit yang menular di kalangan bangsa Malaysia? Kebanyakan mereka yang terlibat dalam aktivisme keagamaan biasanya tidak bisa campur tangan dalam hal berkenaan kekuasaan sesebuah negara.

Sejarah menunjukkan bahawa agama tidak lari dari persengketaan politik, tidak kira sama ada agama itu mempunyai struktur politik yang jelas, seperti dalam Islam, mahupun tidak. Sejarah menunjukkan bahawa teokrasi pernah wujud dalam peradaban manusia, dan penganutan sesuatu agama ada kaitannya juga dengan faedah yang boleh diperolehi oleh masyarakat tersebut.

Sekatan dan tindakan-tindakan yang dikatakan melampaui batasan hak individu/masyarakat juga menyebabkan kecurigaan sesama kumpulan dalam pergaulan sesama mereka. Hak penganut-penganut agama lain kurang dipedulikan.
Mereka yang melantik diri sendiri sebagai pengawal moral ummah mengamalkan kaedah-kaedah yang merendahkan kemampuan berfikir penganut-penganut Islam, antaranya menerusi penggubalan pelbagai fatwa dan perundangan yang bertujuan mengawal dan menekan mereka agar berkelakuan mengikut agenda dan ideologi pengawal-pengawal itu sendiri.

Kita ambil contoh perkahwinan antara penganut agama yang berlainan. Di Malaysia, perkahwinan antara umat Islam dengan bukan Islam, walaupun dengan penganut agama Kristian yang dianggap Ahli Kitab, tidak dibenarkan di sisi undang-udang. Maka, kemajmukan dan pluralitas yang sering disebut-sebutkan itu akan kekal di hujung lidah, tidak dapat dipraktikkan secara lebih mendalam. Saya akur bahawa terdapat banyak masalah yang dapat timbul antara perkahwinan antara dua insan yang beragama berbeza, terutamanya jika kedua-dua insan itu berpegang kuat pada agama masing-masing tanpa berkompromi. Secara luaran, kebanyakan agama yang bersifat monotheistic memang tidak banyak memberi ruang untuk berkompromi. Tetapi, adakah hakikatnya memang begitu, atau itu hanya tafsiran yang telah menjadi dominan pada akhir-akhir zaman ini?

Berkaitan dialog antara agama yang sedia diadakan secara kecil-kecilan dan sedang digalakkan di Malaysia, adakah ia sememangnya dapat menambahkan kefahaman dan empati di kalangan penganut-penganut agama yang berbeza-beza, atau adakah ia hanya merupakan satu cara untuk tidak mendepani isu-isu yang dianggap ‘sensitif’? Siapakah yang menentukan samada sesuatu isu itu adalah sensitif atau tidak? Adakah dengan mengelak isu-isu yang telah ‘disenaraihitamkan’ hanya merupakan satu alasan untuk tidak perlu berhadapan dengan duri-duri paradoks yang sememangnya wujud dalam sebarang agama. Maka, apa yang diwujudkan ialah satu sifat toleransi yang mempunyai konotasi pejoratif, yang menunjukan kepada kemungkinan berlaku letusan dan perbalahan sesama penganut-penganut agama apabila dilemparkan kritikan (walaupun kritikan yang tidak seserius mana, tetapi dianggap cukup serius oleh hanya beberapa individu). Keengganan untuk melihat dan mendepani isu-isu yang menjadi punca perbezaan pendapat atau kecurigaan secara bertanggungjawab akan terus menghalang perpaduan yang tulen dari terbentuk. Kedaifan kebanyakan orang-orang Islam negara ini untuk memahami agama-agama lain, dan juga umat agama-agama lain untuk memahami Islam, membentuk persepsi-persepsi yang menyeleweng berkenaan agama-agama yang bukan agama mereka. Mereka, khususnya umat Islam, yang enggan mengakui kejahilan diri, atau merendahkan hati untuk lebih memahami akidah dan dasar-dasar dalam agama-agama lain, telah menjadi rintangan kepada tercapainya dialog antara agama dengan jayanya. Penganut agama-agama lain juga takut untuk mengkritik apa yang mereka lihat sebagai masalah dalam Islam, samada itu benar-benar masalah, ataupun hanya masalah dalam amatan mereka, kerana bimbang akan dituduh menimbul kekecohan, dan melanggar perlembagaan. Atau lebih buruk lagi, dikecam sebagai kafir yang ingin memecah-belahkan umat Islam.

Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM) telah mengambil satu langkah berani dengan membawa isu perpaduan kaum ke dalam agenda mereka. Namun, mereka belum lagi berani untuk melihat masalah ini dengan lebih dalam, iaitu permasalahan keadaan yang tidak membenarkan pertukaran idea secara terbuka. Memang wajar mereka berhati-hati, kerana hak bebas yang mereka punyai untuk menyuarakan ketidakpuasan mereka akan ditarik balik dengan sepantas kilat sekiranya mereka dilihat sebagai ‘melanggar batasan’. Banyak lagi kumpulan Kristian yang tidak terlibat dengan CFM kerena bukan semua mazhab mahupun kumpulan Kristian di negara Malaysia mengambil sikap terbuka untuk terlibat dengan hal-hal yang dilihat sebagai di luar lingkungan aktiviti ‘keagamaan’ mereka, disebabkan oleh pelbagai perkara dari perbezaan tafsiran hingga kepada keengganan terlibat dalam apa yang dilihat sebagai ‘politik luar’. Suara mereka terbenam, dan tidak kedengaran.

Cadangan Maximus Ongkili untuk mengadakan kursus sensitasi terhadap pluralitas dalam agama patut dimulakan dari peringkat sekolah. Disebabkan oleh kepelbagaian dan kompleksiti dalam satu-satu agama, memang sukar untuk mendalaminya dalam kelas-kelas pengajiaan agama di sekolah (dan pengajian agama yang saya maksudkan di sini bukan tertakluk kepada pengajiaan agama Islam seperti yang dilaksanakan sekarang). Kenapa kita harus membuang duit para pembayar cukai dengan usaha mengadakan kelas Islam untuk pelajar-pelajar Islam dan kelas Moral untuk pelajar-pelajar bukan Islam, yang hanya merenggangkan hubungan sesama pelajar-pelajar?

Bukankah lebih baik diadakan kelas keagamaan untuk mereka dari pelbagai kaum, dengan pengajian secara expansive, dan bukan mendalam (ini boleh dilakukan kemudian, oleh individu tertentu yang mempunyai minat), tentang kesemua agama utama (dan minor) di dunia? Ini bukan cadangan radikal baru tetapi telah mula dipraktikkan di beberapa negara Eropah untuk mengatasi ketegangan keagamaan. Pada pendapat saya, pihak berkuasa tidak seharusnya terasa kewibawaan agama Islam sebagai agama rasmi akan tergugat, kerana terdapat pelbagai cara lagi untuk pelajar-pelajar Islam untuk mendapat pendidikan keagamaan mereka. Ini boleh dilakukan luar waktu sekolah biasa. Ini bukan saja akan menbina perpaduan yang sebenarnya, tetapi akan membina keprihatinan terhadap kepercayaan orang lain dari usia muda lagi. Duit juga dapat dijimatkan dengan menumpukan kemudahan dengan lebih berkesan. Dan bangsa yang dibina di negara ini akan jauh lebih bertamadun dan maju lagi.

Sikap tidak ikhlas kerajaan dan pihak-pihak berkuasa terhadap penganut-penganut agama lain jelas dilihat dari pengharaman beberapa buku bersifat keagamaan, termasuk Kitab Injil dalam bahasa-Iban, bahasa ibunda penganut Kristian bumiputera Sarawak. Ini telah berlaku pada tahun 2003, dan hanya dengan bantahan nyaring dari komuniti ini yang menyebabkan pengharaman itu ditarik semula. Pengharaman ini adalah tindakan dungu yang meremehkan peruntukan yang telah digariskan dalam Bahagian II, Artikel 11, Perlembagaan Malaysia, iaitu, Hak Kebebasan Asas, yang membenarkan penganut-penganut agama lain, termasuk Kristian, untuk mempraktik rukun-rukun agama mereka tanpa diganggu.

Namun, tidak boleh dikatakan bahawa perlembagaan tiada kelemahannya.
Sebagai contoh, dalam fasal 4 perkara 11 yang sama, penganut-penganut agama lain disebut tidak boleh menjalankan aktiviti dakwah terhadap penganut-penganut agama Islam. Kalau dikatakan aktiviti dakwah dengan cara cuba memaksa atau menekan seseorang penganut agama lain untuk keluar dari agama asalnya dan menganut agama lain, itu sememangnya tidak patut. Tetapi kalau umat Islam itu sendiri berminat untuk mengenali lebih lanjut tentang agama lain, yang tidak semestinya menjadikan mereka murtad, ini harus diterima dengan baik. Tiada sesiapa yang dapat memelihara keimanan seseorang individu melainkan individu tersebut. Apa yang boleh dibuat orang lain hanya memberi ingatan dan nasihat. Kalau wujudnya klausa dalam perlembagaan itu adalah disebabkan ketidakpercayaan kerajaan terhadap kebolehan dan keimanan ummah Islam di Malaysia, bukankah ini bermaksud bahawa penganut agama Islam, yang kebanyakannya telah berpuluh-puluh, kalaupun tidak beratus-ratus, generasi yang beragama Islam belum lagi cukup matang untuk menentukan hubungan mereka dengan Allah? Adalah ironis bahawa pembangunan Islam yang ingin digerakkan JAKIM mengandungi unsur tersirat yang memperkecilkan kebolehan ummah Islam Melayu Malaysia untuk berdikari.

Harus diakui bahawa agama dengan sendirinya tidak menjadi pemisah atau jurang sesama manusia, sebaliknya cara umat dalam agama tersebut berperangai. Selagi tiada langkah untuk mengakui kewujudan persoalan-persoalan ini, dan gerakan ke arah mendepaninya, kita akan terus hidup dalam zaman gelap perpaduan.

My revinew of Dummies Guide to Forensics at The Star

For wannabe crime-fiction writers, this book is not a bad place to start, though of course you will need to get another book for more detailed layering of scenes. (:

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Lifebookshelf

Friday April 28, 2006

Crime-scene nuggets

Review by CLARISSA LEE

Forensics for Dummies

Author: D.P. Lyle

Publisher: Hungry Minds Inc, 384 pages,

(ISBN: O-76455-580-4)



And it seems that in every episode, entire teams of forensic scientists (be they investigators, pathologists, toxicologists or whatever sub-fields they are in within the forensic purview) can be devoted to, at the most, three cases, with each episode spanning days and sometimes a week (though seldom longer).

What about the hundreds, if not thousands, of on-going cases that require the attention of a very small team of investigators? What’s more, the TV investigators don’t seem to face any budget constraints that limit their investigations in anyway. Finally, despite the long work hours and ennui due to the seeming lack of clues, they still look beautiful and impeccable.

In this plain-speaking introductory guide to forensic science, D.P. Lyle dispels these notions by giving the readers enough information for them to understand each of the individual fields covered under forensics, without overwhelming them with unnecessary detail.

In the last three chapters, the author provides a summary of 10 famous cases that had utilised (or misused) forensic science, with details on the dead ends and problems faced by investigators, and how Hollywood gets the death scenes wrong in movies and TV series.

Finally, there is information on various careers in forensics, including brief job descriptions, educational requirements and job experience.

Each chapter is written in a way that allows easy cross-referencing should the reader require a refresher on an earlier topic.

The first gives an overview of the world of forensics, and outlines its basic working principles and an introduction to what’s to come in the rest of the book.

Chapter Two shows the forensic investigators at work: it lists their duties and shows how they complement each other. The next two chapters go into how criminal investigators perform their crime-scene duties as well as criminal profiling.

Chapters five to seven give the micro-picture of all the work that is involved in the gathering of evidence and materials from the crime scene as well as crime-scene reconstruction, while nine to 13 provide more intimate details related to the investigation of bodies or body parts.

While Lyle spares us the grisly details (and visuals) and most of the jargon, the clinical details involved in processing a dead body are not exactly bedtime reading. Lyle has organised the book in such a way that those who aren’t too keen on the various etchings and markings, or the number of lands or grooves that a particular firearm possesses may skip that particular section, with no break to the flow of the book.

Likewise, readers who are intrigued by the workings of the criminal mind or the laboratory sciences involved in each of the different fields of forensics can sieve through the details and see how they correlate with one another.

Whether you are a big CSI fan or merely have a casual interest in the behind-the-scenes technicalities, an amateur sleuth, or are considering a career in forensics, this book will do it for you.

There is always something to do....so it is up to you to find the time.

I haven't completely settled at my new place, though am beginning to get used to it. It is actually a lot more comfortable than the previous one, though sometimes I feel like a intruder, because I am now a tenant as oppose to a resident :d

I also need to start working on my writing again, as it has taken a backseat with my house-moving. Last weekend, I spent most of my time reading, and tidying up my room further. At least the latter is settled, and I needed to do that reading to get myself back into the right frame of mind. And also the palpable tension of having to wait for the results of my MA to come to fore. The meeting to determine its fate has been postponed for another week, so I may as well not bother to think about it and spend my time thinking about the short story I was half-way writing.

I'd submitted two stories, and am waiting to hear about them, though am not sure what the reception for them would be like.

On a different note, there is a lot of brouhaha regarding the banning of Amir Muhammad's documentary on Chin Peng, the former leader of the since disbanded Parti Komunis Malaya. I wrote a letter on that, with reference also to the misunderstood Sepet and Gubra (though those films are so much like an advertisement in some sense - I caught previews of them here and there - that it should not by right be misread so completely by the "esteemed" critics. But then, this is Malaysia, so go figure). If you want to read it, it's at Nizam Zakaria's limaunipis blog. It's in Malay. I have sent it to a few publications and I do hope it would be published, real soon, though it's hard to say. Let me know what you think of my comments, whether they are tenable, or am I prematurely regurgitating my ideas...

Oh, there are some links in that blog, and in this blog that are in English so visitors who do not know the Malay Language will still get a gist of the issue.

Currently reading this book "Asian Branding: A great Way To Fly" by Ian Batey during the lull hours at work. I've reserved fiction reading for my hours at home so that I could savour the characters without being distracted. (:

Been awhile

Hey folks,
My apologies for not having posted anything in awhile. Been extremely busy with the changes to my life, which involved a habitat exchange and lifestyle switch. The former is complete but the latter is still an ongoing process. Many things, interesting ones at that, had actually taken place since I last posted, just that I'd neither the time nor energy to post anything, but suffice to say, for now, that last week had been pretty bleh, full of boring details of my having to transport objects from one place to the other, and then pulping the piles of crap I seemed to have the knack for storing. I bet the cleaners must be wondering about the piles of stuff that kept appearing outside my old room for them to remove. But the news is, I have officially cut of my life support from the hostel I've been living in for more than three years and now have to juggle life as an adult *ack*. Not to mention having to deal with angry hormones and an extremely bad flu to boot. It was a pretty bad week as well, coz many unexpected things happened. But there were also some good news to lighten me up when I think that the world is crashing in on me. Some news I would rather not say anything about until things are more confirmed.


Anyway, I'll post more later. After having taken MC last Thurs, and then leave on Fri, I've loads of work to catch up on. See ya!

Translation -> the Cinderella of Literature?

It was said, in publications from two sides of the Atlantic, that native speakers of English have little interest in works that are not written in English. I am not sure if it has more to do with lack of curiosity than ignorance on the existence of such works. Hence, translation is of vital importance. However, good translators are seldom recognised and their work is usually unheralded.

British Council has this very interesting site that talks about translation of original works into other languages. I think anyone seriously interested in literature pay this site a visit.

http://www.literarytranslation.com/

And I recommend reading this highly interesting, and illuminating article on translation of Arabic words to English. And the author mentioned n author's translated works sold more than all his works in Arabic. Talk about international recognition, eh?

"The Cairo trilogy of the Egyptian Naguib Mahfouz has sold more copies in English than the whole of Mahfouz’s work in Arabic."

Click here for the full article.


I personally would continue writing in two languages, for different audiences. And I would love to translate pieces originally written in one language to the other.

My review of Isabel Allende's My Invented Country

This came out in The Star today. I apologise for my rather unwieldy language structure. Should had edited this piece more rigorously. I've taken the libery to amend here, some glaring grammatical mistakes that are found in the original copy.
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Bookshelf
Friday April 14, 2006

A life bound to homeland

Review by CLARISSA LEE

My Invented Country – A Memoir

Author: Isabel Allende

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 224 pages



THIS mesmerising memoir of Isabel Allende allows us a peek into the forces that have shaped the woman into a well-loved storyteller, who, despite meandering in and out of her main tale with little anecdotes and asides, never loses track of her original narrative, but masterfully weaves all the bits and pieces into the mother tale. She is just at home writing tales of epic proportions such as The House of Spirits as she is in giving us little tales of love and food through Aphrodite: The Love of Food and the Food of Love.

In this memoir, Allende superbly balances between revealing details that might be considered intimate, of some of her relatives and friends, but not unmasking them completely or depriving them of their privacies. It is as we know so much about them, while not really knowing them. It is the same when she talks about herself, or her innermost thoughts. But it is her style of keeping the reader in suspense as she brings us closer and closer to her psyche, often pulling us out without our realising it until we notice that she has ceased speaking of the intimate and are regaling us with tales of her native country and its people.

Yet it is in her telling us of the little known aspects of her country (to foreigners) that inevitably bring us up close with her unpredictability, to the capriciousness of humanity, and unveil to her readers the soil of her roots that is firmly packed at the core of her being. In reading Allende’s description of Chile, I am reminded of how like Malaysia it is in terms of its hospitality, its vastly uncritical society and the people’s strong patriotrism that brooks no insults or criticism from strangers to the land. Every social trespass is heavily frowned upon, the Chileans make a national pastime out of complaining about society and themselves, inefficiency and bureaucracy are a way of life, and patriachalism reigns supreme.

The people are stoic and perhaps fatalistic in their view of life, and most are highly religious. Divorce in Chile is near impossible, due to the insurmountable red tape and apathy, so couples seeking formal separation are caught in a legal bind. Moreover, Chile is still in the grip of class-consciousness, whereby the more European you look, the better your pedigree is considered, whereas if you look completely “native”, you are considered inferior. Such an attitude is not alien in many former colonies. However, make no mistake, Allende loves her native land, for all its faults and blemishes.

The memoir does not go in a linear order, even if it is chronological in detailing the events of her life, and of her people. We get an idea of Allende’s early years that have shaped her to be the kind of writer she is today. We know that Latin America has been successful in bringing forth great writers who are loved the world over, and from Chile, besides Allende, we know of Pablo Neruda and a few others.

Allende alludes to an oral tradition of poetry and folklore that has never been lost to its people, and thus it was but a small leap to go from that to writing modern poetry and novels. She also paints for us the beauty of the Chilean landscape, the beauty that had made it the muse of its literature, universally understood by readers worldwide.

Neruda, Allende and many Latin American writers have been translated into many different languages, and as I read her memoir that has been translated from Spanish to English, the lyrical beauty of her language, as well as the unrelenting and profound narrative, remain intact and forceful.

More importantly, she talks about how being uprooted and having to live life over more than once, in different countries, from the time of her youth, have made her write compulsively in order to grasp an identity that is altogether tenuous and elusive. Her notion of the “invented country”, her memories and inventive attribution to her former homeland, to the Chile she has left behind physically but lives on in her imagination, is reminiscent of Rushdie’s anecdote of the “childhood” home he had never been in, but which became very real to him by way of the sepia photograph he gazed at daily as a child.

The imaginary homeland gave such writers, who have the perspective of outsiders, the freedom to place the beauty of a homeland in the foreground while engaging with its reality from afar. While remaining loyal to the spirit of their homeland, they give it critical consideration.

On hindsight, a newcomer to Allende would definitely get a good introductory account to her literary motivations (and be entertained by a remarkably entertaining writer) and her fans will get an ever closer view of the writer whose stories they adore.

A story of LM Montgomery's extraordinary career

If Malaysia has an author who could describe its landscapes as beautifully as she did Prince Edward Island in Canada, we wouldn't need the simpering Ministry of Tourism and its tired "tourist attraction" packages. Or waste so much money rewriting copy to tell people why they should visit Malaysia. But then again, the latter provided income for the likes of lesser souls like myself. :D

Click here to read about what this great writer had to say about her career.

I have to say that I always feel inspired when I read her stories, in a way that I do not get when reading girl stories by many other authors, including British ones, even if I find some of her ideals "Victorian", to quote Ilse Burnley of the Emily Books.

If you have not read her, you should. You can find some of her books in e-text at http://www.tickledorange.com/LMM/Writings.html

Endlessly waiting

That's what I'd been doing where my MA results are concerned. In a way, that irritates me greatly, because I'm not able to go away or make any concrete plans until then. All these uncertainty can sometimes be so galling, especially since I've been living with uncertainty for the past three and a half years. Never knowing what will happen every month. In fact, the most stable months I had was when I was doing my thesis, since I couldn't quite go anywhere. It was then a rather frustrating period, because I have to write but did not quite have anyone, other than occasionally my supervisor, to engage in depth discussion of the issue. Of course, I do know someone who was into the kind of stuff I was doing, but he was usually busy and his location was a little inaccessible to me, especially since I was at that time working far away from the rest of civilization. I longed for the kind of campus life of the mind, which I think I hardly ever get, even when I was doing my undergraduate degree. But I know that someday, real soon, I will achieve that.

On the other hand, things are going well creatively. When I started writing creatively again this year, after months of hiatus, I initially found the words stuck. Though I have had interesting ideas, I found myself unable to formulate them into interesting stories. It was as if I had this writer's block. But thank goodness I was able to ovecome it and had since written another short story. Not that I should since I've got two book reviews to complete. Egad! And I still need a lot of work in the technicalities of writing a story. I am beginning to read writer's guide, on top of the primary works themselves, just to get some tips on what constitute good structure. I have to be the journeyman before I can be the master and create my own form of story-telling. As to whether my stories are Malaysian, well, I'll let the readers decide. I believe that if one were to properly understand postcolonial theories, it works on the idea of subverting a particular narratorial hegemony to allow for the manifestations of greater possibilities and probabilities in the act of story telling. It is supposed to give voice to the subaltern and to remove the shroud of taboo from any subject or issue, especially issues that had made many people uncomfortable or afraid. It is not meant to create any sense of narrow nationalism, though I know some postcolonial theorists and literary academics are guilty of that.

This year I am aspiring to read more fiction, modern and classics, and so far I had succeeded, though in a smaller scale than I have hope. It is tough, especially since I've got loads of non-fiction and theoretical works to go through as well. I think it is about time that I take up less commitment in order to give my time freely to the few important commitments I need to prioritise for this year.

newspaper stories

There is two side to Malaysian newspaper articles. On the one hand, the stories are so repetitive that one can merely glaze over just from looking at them. Different players, similar mise-en-scene. Especially the political news. Even the speeches by the ministers are predictable. I wonder if they all have a pool of speechwriters that they share?

On the other hand, the story that lies behind every local Malaysians news has a possibility of the invisible narrative, that could be either more thrilling or less sensational that that which the newspaper had made up. But, when one does not know the real story behind the story, it is possible to let the imagination run wild with speculation, and when you do that, the little short story or novel is born. Like Capote's "In Cold Blood".

And sometimes, there are so many layers to a possible narrative, that a plain news story can be transformed into a gothic tale of human bestiality or hidden neurosis.

Here, we have all those tabloids, where stories can be rewritten to become bestsellers, and serious news that seem to try to beat the tabloids in their game.

V For Vendetta and Munich -tales of the two movies

I'd watched V for Vendetta on Friday, at a cinema, with a friend, and Munich yesterday, at home and alone. Different styles, different directions. Yet, a similar theme ran through both, which is violence used as means to an end. I have to give it that Spielberg's movie pays better attention to details compared to McTeigue's but both are similarly charged. It is an unfair comparison, seeing that Spielberg has had more experience but McTeigue is definitely at home in the science-fiction/fantasy genre, and knows how to tie in the loose ends, and made the action-packed movie a substantial one.

There is so much that can be reviewed, or critique about the two films (one made it to Malaysia, the other did not, maybe because of the subject matter) but I am merely making notes here of my observations, that might be usable in future articles, or writings.

Both were about fighting for a cause, and both involved the use of murder and violence. While the human element is played to the full in Munich, it is played out pretty well in V for Vendetta by Weaving and Portman, though sometimes, I feel that V was more like a very well-groomed automaton who always knew the right things to say. But His voice, I have to say that I was transfixed by the well-modulated voice, not something you hear everyday if you live where I do. The only time I saw any semblance of actual love for humanity, was the anguish he felt when Evey told him that she was leaving him. It was then that you realised that he actually had REAL feelings. In fact, the problem I would have with the movie, other than it being a rather unevolved political skit, is that we don't get to see more of the characters feelings, though I believe Weaving did a superb job, as did Portman. What is more, there seems to be too clear a demarcation between the good and the bad. And the bad seems almost mad and monstrous, all with the exception of Finch, the head of the police department, who despite being initially on the side of the "bad guys" (but one can see that he had a heart, as he wanted to save Evey from possible torture and death if she were to fall into the hands of the secret police, the "fingermen"), soon sided with the "good guys" towards the end of the movie, and helped toppe the government ala Guy Fawkes by bombing the Parliament. Maybe I'll read the graphic novel before I comment further, and that would require me to try fnding it in a bookshop. (:

As for Munich, I am sorry that it did not make Malaysia's cinema. Though a Hollywood movie, it does not have many of the irritating qualities of the current breed of movies from Tinseltown. I am so glad that Spielberg did not try to distinguish between the good and bad guys, and the beauty of the movie is how multi-faceted his characters are, even those who made but cameo appearances. It is a story about the aftermath of the 1972 Olympics in Munich, where 11 Israeli atheletes were massacred by a bunch of Palestinian freedom-fighters. There were as many violent scenes in the movie as there were tender moments.

I have to say that it is the dialogue that made the characters come alive for me, and I almost wished that the "terrorists" (Palestinians in this movie, according to the Israeli government) that were being hunted would escape unscath, because they were so kind, gentlemanly and courteous in person. They were loving to their families, they obviously love their people and shared in the sufferings of their predicament, despite living bourgeoisie lives in Europe.

One must remember that the events that took place in this movie was just slightly after the six day war in 1967, which heralded the drawing up of West Bank border. It was also not too long after the repatriation of the Jews to Israel. Violence was then escalating as the stateless Palestinians fought to regain their land. It is important to mention that when the word "terrorist" were used in the film, it was not to influence the perception of the audience towards the Palestinians, but rather to let us view them through the eyes of the Israelis who were then at war with them. But when we observe individual interactions, and there are so many such instances of such in the movie, we soon realised that, if not for all these political hatred, these people could had been very good neighbours and friends with one another. Just like how the Bosnians and Serbs were friends prior to the Balkan conflict.

There was a scene showing Avner (the hired assassin, formerly of MOSSAD, the Israeli secret police) having a pow-wow with Ali, a Jordanian, who freely told the former that he hated the Jews, after having mistaken the former for a German. The latter did not love the Palestinians any better, but they were considered preferable to the Jews because the Arabs felt that the Jews had be the cause of their destabilisation. A few scenes down, when Avner was shooting Ali in the former's attempt to get away after assasinating the man the latter was guarding, you could almost see in Ali's eyes, the look of sadness and betrayal. And one sees that anguish in Avner's eyes (or maybe I'd imagined it) as the cameras did a close-up. The Israeli assassins were ethical in their attempt to inflict minimal damage while ridding themselves of their targets. One of the assassins, the bomb-maker Robert, was trying to get details of the telephone of one of the targets to plant a bomb, the target's daughter saw him doing that as she came in to practice on the piano. But the girl was unsuspecting and even smiled at Robert. He must had felt terrible then, knowing that he was soon to make her fatherless, and the anguish was apparent later, when he lost his appetite after having successfully killed the target at last. There was a scene where they found out that she was still in the house, and had picked up the call that was meant for her father. They attempted to delay the assassination until she was safely out. But was indeed a very sad scene, for the viewer knew what will soon come to past.

There were many scenes of brutality, but also many scenes of tenderness. Avner's love for his family saved him from becoming a victim of another assassin masquerading as a prowling man-trapper. I saw him cried as he spoke to his little daughter on the phone, and I wondered how he felt then about the men he had been assigned to destroy, the men who were also husbands and fathers. Towards the end of the film, the audience is shown how much toll such a life had had on him, renderind him paranoid and giving him the equivalent of a post traumatic stress disorder. From the time he decided to undertake the mission, his life changed, and would never be the same. But he began then to open his eyes to the futility of brutality as it begets more brutality (something that we get to see through the news that came on a few times in the movie). His previous unquestioning loyalty towards his homeland took a turn when he realised how much of a pawn he was to his country's politics. The movie succeeded in portraying the weaknesses and cruelties of both sides, as well as the humanity that exists in each individual person. Unfortunately, since the focus of the movie was on the Israeli, we did not get to see really what goes on in the minds of individual Palestinians and Arabs, but from the short exchanges of dialogues, and from the various scenes, we get a notion that they too have a heart. We are reminded of the fates of the refugees after the Palestinians were rendered stateless, and it is clear that the movie aspires to tell both sides of the stories as well as it could. We also get to see the kind of impression PLO had on the world back then, and how easily they were confused with HAMAS (maybe because of the ties to both organisations by certain individuals).

Hence, I think it is shallow prejudice that kept Munich from being screened in Malaysia. Anti-semitism, unfortunately, is still pretty high in this country, and that had kept many worthy movies from being shown. We are in some ways worse than terorrists who had become such due to their despair, because we are blindly prejudiced in our complacency, only because it is easier to be prejudiced along with the majority rather than to question it. I suspect that V For Vendetta was allowed to be screened because it had been categorised as some movie version of comics, despite its obvious political content and unrelenting criticism of establishments. V, the man who is liberator of the masses, as had been said in other reviews, is also highly individual, in that he has tastes that could not be considered "popular", with the exception maybe of the jukebox. He does remind me of Eric in the novel Phantom of the Opera, though perhaps a more highminded version?

Both movies were about fighting for freedom. One involving only one country, whereas the other involved a country that had become the source of wars between two factions. I daresay that the two movies would be interesting to explore what is means to be a terrorist, and the "black September", September 1972 and September 2001.

And if you need a refresher course on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, do check out here

What I think of the Grouchy Grammarian

Regardless of how fluent and skilled you think you are when it comes to the English Language, one is always in need of a refresher course. You never know, that very verb or classic quote you've been so fond of using may actually be off the mark (you will learn how to use may/might properly in one of its chapters). You can learn from the blunders of others, and vow to yourself never to make the same mistakes. But then, old habits diehard. Second language users will definitely benefit from this book, and many of the hits-and-misses and boos-boos were commited by professionals, some of whom use language to earn a living, and many of whom are native users. And my, the mistakes made are quite funny. I had many a good laugh (and laughter is a good antidote for stress and depression, cliche I know) over them, even late into the night (I wonder what my neighbours had thought of all those peals of laughter).

English has always been a slippery one, what with its many past pefect tenses, past participles, progressive tenses, and having to differentiate between gerunds and infinitives, getting the subject-verb agreement right. The latter in itself can give you split ends, if not a splitting migraine. So, why not indulge yourself in some good laughs while learning a thing or two about grammar? And keep this book about you at all times.

My own little review of The Historian by Elizabeth Kostovo

I finished this book, at long last. And I feel myself much closer to the Balkan and Ottoman history than I've ever been before, and in fact, this book has created in me a hunger to explore the geography and histories of these countries with their glorious and terrible histories, which I've flown over but never set foot on.

The book comes to me in many layers. The first layer is the story itself. In documenting the history of Vlad Tepes, or Vlad the Impaler (who is the real Dracula to the Dracula of popular imagination), as well as following the lives of the various scholars who were obsessed with finding out more about him and in tracing the mystery that shrouds this cruel man. If you read the book and check out on his history, you will realise that there is as much speculation as fact, and the author has give free reign to her imagination where facts are hazy, and from that, we get an intriguing story (even if it falters slightly towards the end). It all began with the finding of a little folio of a book, with empty pages save for the woodcut of a dragon in the middle. The leaving behind of an unknown book, of ancient but unknown provenance, is a litmus test, is the Dracula's way of satisfying his hunch that he had picked the person with the qualities he was looking for. So that he may bring them into his underworld and have them serve him. Yes, historical Dracula is made the vampire here, though in a way more real and refreshing than all the tired pop-culture renderings. In fact, there was a part in his speech that is chillingly true. About how evil is more easily perfected than good, in this world of ours. And that was further emphasised through the description of the various manuals on cruelties that a human can inflcit on another in the Impaler's library. And there is a strong, yet subtle tying in, to the atrocities and politics of modern times, and the atrocious manueverings of the Impaler would not have been out of place today.

Another layer is that this is definitely a bibliophile's book. Anyone who is a self-professed archivist, historian or lover of books would find much descriptions to delight the senses. In fact, it took me back to the days when I used to explore antiquarian bookstores in my travels in England and the Netherlands. It is the marking of a formerly colonised country that Malaysia does not have much of such collections, save for that brought over by the former colonials, and perhaps bought by some wealthy and cultured collector. I was once told that there are collectors of rare manuscripts in Malaysia, by a source close to these buyers, and I hope to be able to acquaint myself with one of them. Rare manuscripts lie in abundance in this tale, and it is as much a novel as it is a story of scholarship and books as it is of vampires and obscure folk tales. Dracula himself is a biblophile, which explains his interest in anyone who handles books of any sort. The chapter describing his library was astounding, and even tempted me to join the him, had I been a character in the novel, for the sake of thumbing through the volumes, many in languages I would never had understood. Despite the professed anti-intellectualism of Medieval Europe, monasteries remained centres of learnings and keepers of knowledge.

The next layer is a sort of political commentary of the times, and of the countries traversed by the characters. Ancient political history interspersed with current affairs of the twentieth century, and as many former countries of the Eastern bloc are opening up, one wonders what it might have been back then. Today, it would be a lot easier to enter these countries than to travel to what used to be free, democratic countries, due to the change in political climate and the rise of a different sort of terrorism. The irony of it all.


The fourth layer is the religious history that lie heavy in the pages. I just hope that some of the words used by the author, whom I am sure only use them to inject realism into the story, would cause this book to be banned by certain fundamentalist and close-minded factions in this and other countries. Especially since Karen Armstrong's History of God has been banned in Malaysia. In fact, I could only read it at the library of the university I used to attend here, though sadly, I never got around to it. It is definitely interesting to explore the mystical aspect of Christianity that were very much of the Eastern Orthodox tradition, and how Kostova has cleverly foregrounded Dracula into the struggle between the Christians and the Ottoman conquerors. I do not see anything biased or judgement of her account, for she is quick to give credit where it is due, for instance, by stating, not once but a few times, to her readers, via her characters, how the Ottoman conquerors could be as benevolent to their conquests, as they were violent during the act of conquering. There were particular mention of Sultan Mehmed II as he lived during the lifetime of Vlad Tepes, this prince of the Wallachian seat. A kind of inter-faith conference seem to take place in this book, via the roundabout route of history and politics, and through the medium of the central character, none other than Dracula himself. The word 'infidel' flows on both sides to refer to the other in ancient epistles. Kostova now and then will have her characters making statements, sometimes political in nature, and at other times an affirmation of a particular person or culture's religious faith. Or maybe of the person's agnosticism. But it is through the figure of the Dracula that has united people of different political, religious and even geographical inclination into a pursuit against evil.

Running through all these heavy layers are individual love stories, which are rather tragic, as the characters in love are star-crossed, and circumstances act to separate them. For the hopeless romantic, there is a story in which one of the main characters in the story, who having met the love of his life while on his trip to Romania to follow the trails of the undead Impaler, swallowed a drink in Greece that made him forget his research and the fact that he had ever set foot in that country, thus leaving the poor young girl (who as you will read further, is pivotal in this tale, because of her ties one of the two main protagonist of the tale)alone and pregnant. It is opened to speculation as to whether his being given this drink had been intentional, since the author never explored this option further. Or that the married life of the two protagonists, having fallen in love during their pursuit together after the trail of Dracula's tomb, because of the contamination of one of them, and Dracula's relentless pursuit of them through their lives, were separated, and even after being reunited, never lived long together in happiness. In fact, despite the rather bland ending, the reader is left guessing as to whether Dracula is well and truly gone. That despite the fact we see him disappearing into dust. However, the drama of the previos pages more or less make up for the anti-climax, as the reader will still find it throbbing in his or her head, and that more than anything make-up for the disappointment.

There are many more minor layers in this book, but I hope that the mention of these existing layers would have convinced a person with a love for history and books to begin reading. Perhaps I might have given some of the plot away, but that is no help to that since I am not really reviewing this book here, but talking about areas of it which intrigues me. The artificial divide of the oriental versus the occidental seems to dissolve under the narration, even if the description occasionally bring them back.

A short review of Tues, 14 Mar 2006, Of Descartes "Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason, and seeking Truth in the Sciences"

There is not much that I wish to say here, other than the fact that the discussion went on well, and even generated much heated debate from one or two of its members who decided to argue for or against Descartes's personal maxims to approaching philosophy, though of course, I think there is a certain degree of misunderstanding of what the poor man might had meant in this treatise, seeing that some of us are too set on our own preconception (something which Descartes did warn against) to try to work out what he might had been saying. However, as one of the discusssants point out, it is important that we can process what the person whose work we are studying has to say, so that we can utilise that in our own thinking, rather than blindly regurgitate the maxims and theorems of the said philosopher. Of course, there might be certain amount of misinterpretation and oversubjectivisation by the person reading Descartes, especially when he or she is ignorant of the tradition from which Descartes has risen from (though this has been severely argued and counter-argued by structuralists and post-structuralists in their deconstruction of the text and the author)

The natural scientist in me rebels over subjectivisation. Despite my personal subscription to the philosophy of quantum mechanics, where there are many uncertainties and errors in human measurements of its functions and variables due to our ability to be doing more than one thing properly at the same time, there are certain levels of precision and arbitrary laws to denote it. Or better yet, a particularly fixed model to which to base all the less easily measured models.

This particular work of Descartes is like a little manifesto that he wrote for himself as a reminder on the method that worked best for him in his dissertation the sciences (sciences here means body of knowledge). Descartes separated "pure philosophy", that which enumerates the truths of the world independent of subject-matter, from "applied philosophy ", that which is the philosophy derived from a particular science (my jargons) and we will see more of this as we study into his other works. We know that Descartes subscribed to the dual mind-body model, and
that he separates the corporeal from the material in his philosophy. Some might consider him an empiricist in his dissection of the material, but was less given to questioning when it comes to dealing with the unseen. Perhaps an area which escaped us that night, which I only realised as I write this, is that the text of Descartes allows us into the limits of the person's mind, and also a peek into the psychological conditioning he has had from his Jesuit education. I see now that his arguments over his religion, which he accepts unquestioningly as the ultimate truth, is reminiscent of the same acceptance of many scholars and philosophers of their religion today.

Quite a number of us who attended this discussion had a real interest in philosophy, and had read into the field, though most of us are not really knowledgeable on Descartes's philosophy. I think at least one of us mixed up epistemology with ontology when he decided to get into an involved discussion on existentialism and God (perhaps a precursor to future discussion on ontology?). I am guilty of encouraging this digression and for not trying to steer it back to the discussion of Descartes's four maxims (please refer to text, Part II, II and IV for more details). The unfortunate part is that not everyone read the text prior to the discussion, so there is no real space for more indepth discussion.

Our next discussion will still be on Cartesian philosophy, this time examining some other texts. I will put up a notice on that later. This time round, different people have volunteered to read different texts and to present their findings to the rest for further debate and discussion. I will put a list of the selected texts up later and say which have/have not been taken up, and you take your pick from texts that have not yet been taken-up.

And let us not get into the bad habit of going off tangent, however learned you might be in the topic you are digressing into, but stick to the agenda of the night, unless you can provide a substantive link between topic of discussion and your examples. And please read the text, or you will not get the fullness of the discussion. Since there might be more than one this time, you might not have time to read them all, but please read the ones you have volunteered to present, and scan through the rest as you have time.

My point of this review is not to report on what happened that night in detail, coz that is too much work and takes too much time (this is voluntary after all). So if you really want to know, come join us. It differs each time, depending on who turns up. There were seven of us that night, though two turned up late.

No date has been fixed for the next meeting. Coordinator, yours truly, might be too busy next month. Will let everyone know later.

A bientot

Ways of Understanding

Understanding, an act we participate in without much conscious thought. An ability that we have been schooled to utilise in our nascent years, and is perhaps the key to our learning of new skills and comprehension of new subject matter. Perhaps the differentiating factor between passing or failing our exams, or being competent at our work. This and its partner, the short term memory, so essential to learning, prior to its confirmation among the filing system of the long-term memory, create a fine line between a person with aphasia or other cerebral dysfunctions, and a person with normal brain function.

Yet, even those of us who believe that we are utilising our brains optimally, we often fail to realise how inefficient we really are, and how often it is that we fail to understand even the most basic of matters. While it would be catastrophic for a doctor, engineer, architect, or any professional dealing with precise sciences, to misunderstand the area of their provenance, more subjective areas (and despite the specificities of the legal system, many laws are more subjective in their interpretation than we think)are where we see the slip-ups and complete miscomprehension of its human actors. Below are some examples of what I meant

1. In the world of political debates, when an issue is at stake, we can find supposedly intelligent people completely misunderstanding an issue that is the topic of their debate, and instead spend their entire time during the debate, moving up the wrong alley. Some of these people are what Descartes would call, those who consider themselves to be cleverer than they are, and are precipitious in their judgements and avowals. Yet, they believe that they have impressed the audience with the pedantry of their arguments. Or that they have fight a good fight.

2. In the corporate world, even in the most highly regulated arena like banking, there is always much room for misunderstanding from different sides. Perhaps they are spurred by an inability to continue their emotions, or are overly easily agitated by perceived slights. It is not unknown for the superior to be inconsistent in their directives, nor for the quacking staff to fail to elicit clarity of a vague instruction given by their superior. Nor is it uncommon for the staff to communicate instructions to each other in such a way that the instructions function more to confuse the communicatee than to shed light on anything. Sometimes, the receiver of the message has to undergo much cognitive decryption to make sense of the message that is trying to be communicated, and when he/she actually make the effort to find out, find the effort to be an almost pointless exercise.

3. A university professor who misunderstands a particular theory or does not fully understand what he/she is trying to communicate to the students tend to confuse the latter, and hence lead to more disinformation. What is more dangerous would be disinformation of the most fundamental of axioms and concepts since these are the foundation to the building of analysis. To base an entire analysis and spurious/erroneous concept is not merely a time-wasting exercise, but could become dangerous when these analysis are used as building bricks to formulate policies that would have its effect on the lives of the masses. A student who fails to clarify or check on the received information, but to continue in his/her miscomprehension, and to accumulate knowledge with perceptions that are skewed, is but building a house on quaking sand.

4.Another common and probably dangerous method of understanding is to see truth as relative, and thus forsake instances when truth might be arbitrary. Whether they be religious precepts, or the laws of physics. Should we build our interpretation on matters over which no authority could certify, because the shifting paradigm necessitates that truth shifts at all times, if it is but an exercise on intellectual play, might be a harmless, and perhaps rejuvenating to the mind. But, it starts becoming dangerous when we use our own subjective understanding (or misunderstanding) to influence and teach minds weaker than ours. Where then is our accountability to them.

At the end of the day, perhaps it is best that we bring the act of understanding into a more conscious position, and to observe ourselves as we enter into the motion of comprehending something which is new, something which we are reading, or information that are entering by way of our senses. Perhaps then can we really understand how and how much do we understand.


The above are partial examples of how understanding courses through human life. The entry is inspired by Descartes's "Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting Reason".

The ways of a(n)(un)thinking person?

This abstract act has fascinated people through the centuries, so much so that scholars, philosophers, writers, scientists, artists, and such like-intellectuals have tried to define this process, or at least have attempted to do so, without ever cracking the concept.

However, I am not going to play the philosopher here, but instead would like to use tangible examples on what actually goes on in the mind of an average person, and does the person'a thought become manifested in his/her actions.

Howard Gardner proposed 7 types of human intelligence . Hence, just because that person performs poorly in one area of intelligence does not negate his intelligence completely. So, would it mean that a person who is a fool in his chosen profession means that he has chosen the wrong profession? Likely. Unless he/she was a fool to begin with. (:

While some might argue that intelligence is innate, there are certain psychological factors, as well as training that can influence the way a person react to situation.
Let's take learning martial arts, yoga or even an intricate dance-step. How does a person actually memorise all the right poses, footwork or even handwork? Firstly, there is a need to have visual-spatial intelligence, to be able to easily gauge and therefore memorise the coordinates of each position of the hand, feet and body. And there is a need to think through logically using one's bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. However, could a person who is able to think logically from one action to the next, have difficulties solving more abstract logical-mathematical problems? Highly likely, because some people with high logial-mathematical abilities are not physically coordinated (which would mean that the body does not wire so well with the brain). I myself very well understand how it is to watch a demonstration of an action and to think it either looks really easy only to realise that I am having spatial-directional problems when trying to replicate the process I have just seen. Or even find out that intricate steps, however confounding they look, actually are manageable and even easily emulated once broken down.

And then there is the matter of moving this new piece of information from short term to long term memory. How does one do that? Will do another post on this another time. (: But suffice to say for now that a quick memory does not always necessitate good comprehension. Some people who take longer to remember can remember well and long in the end, and with good comprehension as well. But having the ability to grasp information quickly and sort them out in your brain is a good skill to have, and which many people have been attending courses and reading books to master :)

I have experimented with different ways of thinking, have stumbled along the way, done really idiotic things I would not have done in my right mind e.g. doing something really silly when trying to imitate an action which I've just been shown. I sometimes have difficulties relating phonetic sounds to meaning (e.g. being unable to understand what a person is trying to tell me because of the accent or the modulation of the voice, or being unfamiliar with the sounds of a foreign language which I am trying to master), and have even tried to figure out a way to remember intricate poses for yoga and dances. (:

There are many examples in which people would sometimes do think without thinking (or at least without thinking it through). Hence, I will write about how to lose a guy in 10 days...oops I mean how to lose your brains in 10 ways. There are more, but these examples will do for now. ;)
1. Double-parking when they know they are not going to be within range of sight, or knowing that they won't be taking only a short while.
2. Trying to squeeze your vehicle into a tight spot and then cursing the stranger who knocks into it.
3. Driving in the middle of the road and then wondering why the car behind you is staring daggers.
4. Accelerating and refusing to give way when the car on your left is signalling to move right.
5. Throwing food into water dispenser, knowing full well that you will also have to suffer the consequences of blocked filters.
6. Cutting down trees without thinking how it might effect the ecosystem overall, and your comfortable, urban life in the end
7. Planning the town haphazardly (think of the recent flashfloods in KL)
8. Building roads anyway and anyhow you like, regardless of the effects on the community around you.
9. Students copying results of an experiment which they should be conducting on their own and thus obtain their own results. But they've been doing this all the while, from school to university. Hence, they never learnt to conduct an experiment, or even do anything properly. Which is why our industries and corporate world is so screwed up. Btw, this applies to the medical sector as well.
10. We follow the laws and rules that are given to us unthinkingly, because we have been brainwashed to do so since we were kids. We never thought of questioning the feasibility or even the rationality of such laws.

bonus point : Believing that reform is underway when all that is being done is to cover the subject over with tinsels and glitters. E.g. Does appointing women to a patriarchal system solve the problem of gender inequity? Well, only in terms of having female faces and bodies among the men, honey.

Go figure the rest.