Should have been the first article in this space, but then again life is not perfect anyway…
Here’s what Wikipedia says about a weblog/blog:
“A blog (….web log) is a website, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. …Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of the many blogs.”
Yes, it is now 2.48am in the morning – so I guess it is either the case of ‘old habits die hard’ or perhaps I am only good (in terms of writing or composing) at this kind of hour. I can clearly remember the younger days (not that I feel old now) I used to prepare my paper works, proposals and the like at this kind of hour in the night – I somehow find it easier – the thoughts flow better during this wee hours of the morning. Anyhow, being back in corporate employment, I have to be honest in term of time spend during ‘working hours’ and not to spend so much of it doing personal things, ain’t it?
Well, not that I’m such a rule abider myself…, in fact I see myself more of a ‘maverick’ (there you go, the first clue of who I am), or in consulting we term it as ‘contrarian thinking’ – in terms of work, I believe that the results delivered is more important than the actual hours spent ‘being at work’ – and that is how I manage my team in office. And thanks to a colleague at work who pointed me to a Brazilian guy by the name of Ricardo Semler, that concept has been further entrenched in me (Ricardo Semler is the author of ‘Maverick’ and ‘Seven Day Weekend’ and owner of Semco company in Brazil, that since at least more than 2 decades ago, has experienced tremendous sustainable and profitable growth – those of you in management positions or especially business owners are highly recommended to read the books, but that will be a separate topic of its own – which I believe I will also be writing on).
Talking about books – man, do I love reading. I can read, and read, and read…, and during the good few years period of my life (twice, mind you) where I found myself out of work (more of out of income, as there was plenty of work to do actually) – I relish the freedom of time that I have, that I spent on reading, researching, and preparing concept papers, proposals, and white papers etc. – not that I have any paying client, but I guess for the love of it. Now that I have ‘money’ – to live relatively comfortably that is, not yet financially free of which I hope to attain one day – I really miss the time, the freedom of being ‘out of work’ (for those who have the thought of trying the same phase of life – I say don’t, having no money is very painful, especially if you have children – it’s a very heart-breaking experience when you find yourself not being able to see your children in the eyes, and having to explain to them the situation you have put your family into – perhaps I’ll share some of those experiences as well in this blog, later).
Well, back to the topic at hand. Why blog? What is my blog about? Another diversion first - my first involvement with blogging (as a reader, observer and a few times as ‘commenter’) was with Jeff Ooi’s blog ‘speaking out, speaking loud’ (hey, the guy is now an MP – guess I should have been a blogger much earlier hehehe) which I stumbled upon through Malaysiakini. My current favourite for a few years now is of course Raja Petra’s Malaysia Today (a spin off of his Free Anwar Campaign Website – what a change from the days of my Virago biking, when I first met him in person, and his cycling column in The Star). Blogging has of course ‘exploded’ since then with the most favourite being political blog (what else, being in Malaysia where free and fair press still a dream, and does not look like changing much soon, until…) to the extend that blogs have been credited as one of the main cause of the recent 080308 tsunami. And in the process, noticing that a friend of mind, a fellow ANSARAian had launched a blog under the name of bigdogdotcom, a guy who used to be one of those behind Kelab Maya UMNO – his blog from my view is more of Mukhriz Mahathir’s fan club website than a real behind the scene political blog (hey, we can always agree to disagree and live happily ever after).
Since then we have seen UMNO politicians taking to the blog with the likes of Khir Toyo (big traffic despite having no real content) and the ex-CM of Melaka, Ali Rustam (I remember, how myself and a group of Usahawan Wanita Melaka were kept waiting for almost an hour in his huge room, so that he can browse his newspaper – and then to have him suggesting the entrepreneur group to create a chain or franchise of assam fish outlets, despite our white paper for a comprehensive entrepreneur development program and day clinic facilities – wow, such creativity?). The most recent pinnacle in the blogging world is perhaps the new ruling by UMNO that says politicians who aspire for any positions in UMNO must have a blog-site – another example of ‘coffee-shop thinking’ – whatever first come to mind must be the solution to the problem at hand? (This term should now go together with another one coined by me earlier – ‘tom-yam syndrom’ – which I said then to be the biggest problem with bumiputra business thinking, which refers to having business with absolutely no differentiation whatsoever but just because other people seem to be successful at it – more about this in other writings).
So, naturally I guess my interest in blogging has always been there (I did have a website with some friends focusing on personal and professional development much earlier in the mid 1990’s but have long since abandoned it due to some problems then). Of course the focus of getting my life back into track superceded my other social activities, coupled with the fact that living in an area officially addressed by the Post Office as ‘Kawasan Perumahan Mewah, Lembah Beringin’ means living in irony as we hardly has any real internet connection, let alone broadband services.
The next issue was then, the theme of the blog. Frankly, I didn’t really know when I launched the blog last week, I just had to do it – one thing I learn is that, ‘any time is a good time’ – so I just went ahead and do it, ….and think later (contrary to my normal behaviour of thinking and planning first). Thus the reason why for those who visited my blog earlier found that I didn’t even fill up the profile section – I guess the earlier visitors are my known friends anyway, so I really hope they can be a bit patient with my shortcomings – it’s already up, guys! That however prompted a web developer friend to suggest a few tips on having a good website/blog, with the suggestion that I should introduce myself as if I’m having teh tarik with a bunch of friends. Great, good suggestion – and since I have such many and diverse interests anyway – I visualize that this blog will be my personal Café where I’ll have my coffee and keropok or nasi kerabu or nasi berlauk or whatever and chat away various issues that interest me, and hope that there will be people out there who will be interested and share some of my interests as well. Ehm, sounds quite alright – plus my better half has always dream of having her own specialty Café one day anyway.
(to be continued, tomorrow....)
17 tahun bukan waktu yang pendek
100 fakta Kelantan
100 fakta Kelantan
18 tahun masih tinggal di rumah kampung berkembar masjid
100 fakta Kelantan
The Orphan and the Fortress
http://sakmongkol.blogspot.com/2008/11/on-to-other-things-then.html
Once upon a time, amidst the bleating of sheep and goats in a dilapidated city, a child was born to a mother who had just lost her husband. Custom of the land had it that every new-born child of that society were to be taken up by foster mothers to be nursed and breast-milked until the real mother was well enough to take her child up again. All this was done, of course, for a fee. But being poor and of no societal stature and absolutely wealth-less, no one would want to take up the rosy-cheeked baby to be breast-fed: his was of no consequence. No material benefit. No immediate economic advantage. The single mother was poor. It was deemed to be such a non-smart move to breast feed this child, at least financially. But the boy survived and when the mother died too a few years later, he remained a full orphan true and true.
I am pitched in a mixture of perplexity, forlorn and spleen at the current state of things regarding my religion in this country of mine at this present moment. Just like the child, I feel as though it has been orphaned big time: no one would want to take care of it when it needed one, defend it at its time of need, speak for it when it needed a voice. When rude voices speak against it, against its “stupid fatwas”, the intellects, the writers and bloggers with the gab, the personalities that matter, all join in the foray of mutually condemning them too. It is as though to be associated with Islam is no longer a cool state of things. Fire a sling shot at it, and the muslims scurry to disown their own religion faster than it takes time to say “I have faith”. In the now state of things Islam has, invariably, become an orphan religion.
It is now hip to demonize the ulamas, muftis and scholars together with the pak lebais and the moulvis as people who only know how to concoct sensitive issues not within the spirit of 21st century progress. And when people of other faiths join in the foray in its condemnation, the religion finds two-pronged attacks: one from the side of those who are NOT within the faith, and from another WITHIN, the ones we find too dear to disown but at the same time singing in the same chorus with people who are not of the same faith. The religion is left defenseless under an immortal zugzwang.
Gentlemen. Those fatwas are not stupid. The ulamas are not imbeciles. Every single fatwa that has been written has to undergo rigorous processes of research, scrutiny and studies before they come up with their findings. You can disagree with it only if you take an equivalent scrutinous path to achieve what you conclude as a different ruling but the question is, have we done so? What honor is there in nodding together with Lesbian-Lieuw (pengkid case) or Pandit Puthusamy (yoga) to disown or condemn your own ulamas and calling your religion stupid?
Now every body can give two cents views. But in the case of this orphan religion, this license to give 2 cents views include those who make pre-emptive declarations like “Well, I am not a good muslim myself but I think ..” or “even though I have little knowledge about this, I think the ulamas are not fair …” or “I have done a fair share of sins in this world too but I need to speak out …”. Hello! Its religion we are talking about here. How about we open up the viewpoints of inmates of drug detection centers on the legalities of legalizing marijuana? Or getting Botak Chin to voice out his opinion on the fallacies of the death sentence, if only he were above room temperature now? Am I saying we all have to be saints to voice out something about religion? No I am not saying that, but when it comes to fatwas, all of which have been done after a series of strict methodological research and studies, I would expect that those who have differing views to arrive at them through some similar if not more rigorous analysis. Note I said differing views. Not condemnations.
In scientific circles, there are hundreds or thousands of theories that are written every year and published in refereed journals. Out of these, barely 1 or 2 percent have any resemblance to truths and realities while the rest of them are disregarded in the wastepaper basket of uncertainty based on them either not having sound scientific foundations or the inability to verify their truths experimentally. But far from condemning the writers of those theories, nobody throws them away: they remain to be stepping stones for other theories that were to later emerge or improved.
But fatwas and dogmas are inter-related. If they go for one now, who can guarantee that they don’t go for the next? Then to make your life and work simple, my dear muslim defenders of modern Islam, why don’t we all start questioning the sophomoric existence of the hereafter, the asinity of believing in hell fire (believing in heaven I am sure you wouldn’t have much of a problem, do you? Nudge nudge, wink wink), the absurdity of the prophet’s night journey and numerous other inept things that make up the teachings of Islam?
Nobody dares to do today what Halimah did to that orphan of 1400 years ago. Halimah was a lady whose possessions in this world would probably be accurately termed as absolutely meager. Her sheep were sick, her camels weak, and her grazing ground plot was barren. With other flocks, her sheep and camel were always the last to be left behind because of their physical disadvantages.
But Halimah took up the child Mohammad. And suddenly, a few days later she found that her grazing plot was full of grass, her sheep had become fat and her camels now look like racing breeds. If there is so much honour and barakah in raising up an orphan child, gentlemen, think about what it would do to us to defend an orphan religion brought about by this orphan child which is, at the present moment, facing untold amount of multi-prong condemnations from all quarters. Just like that orphan, he could survive even if Halimah hadn’t taken him up. But can we survive if we join in the voices of its condemnations? It’s our chance, that’s how I see it.
I know this letter will find, amongst other things, apologetic replies with “Well actually you got it wrong, I didn’t say that ….” or “we didn’t mean it that way ..” or perhaps equivalent stronger reinforcements of the “the ulamas ARE imbeciles and the fatwas ARE stupid” kind of arguments, but let’s not lose sight of the forest because of the trees here. More importantly, let’s not win battles but lose wars. I am just making a sincere calling here. Enough of using this intellect and gab that God has given us to condemn the ruling that fortifies the teachings of that man 1400 years ago from all other impurities, mantric shastras included and start to use it FOR it instead.
Allama Iqbal once said,
There was once a time
when this fortress sought to reflect
The Wheeling of the Heavens
How many Princes fell on their knees
before its gates
And now, on the bastions,
a wild dove is poised
Do we want to keep the fortress that way, gentlemen?
Your bereaved brother, Apocryphalist