Wough, this week has been quite a week (apart from the fact that I have to cook and wash dishes after my domestic help of 3 years left and the new temporary helper was possibly a psycho)
After I had done my household chores (there's a lump in my throat as I type this), I sat glued to watch a prog on the National Geographic.I was waiting for the prog On Becoming a King about the present Agong, Sultan Mirzan of Tganu.I'm glad I did.He reminds me of the late Sultan Selangor (who I met and salam hormat masa b'day garden party dia kat Istana Negara when he was Agong)yang berjiwa rakyat.When Tuanku Mirzan spoke of his culture shock when he first studied abroad, I thought..geez..I could relate to him too!(that he sounded like one of us).He played football with the kampong kids,he went down to visit the tukang kayu without much protocol,etc etc.How timely that he's the Agong when we are about to celebrate our 50th year Merdeka.Daulat Tuanku!
Lepas tu last night I got to see the sufis from Konya, Turkey.They came to perform at UM City Branch (organised by the Turkish International Sch) I had missed similar performances (perhaps by a diff group) when they were at Cornell (I had to attend my Dept's dinner..it would be rude to leave them for whirling dervishes and sufi musicians!)
The funny thing is I almost didn't make it this time too.Nik was away.I could not go on my own (kawasan tu gelap and bekas tempat askar Jepun bunuh orang?)When Nik came back, it took a while to persuade him.That he was tired, that he had no interest, that he'd rather watch football..haiyo...but my wifey charm got the better of him.Ha ha (the deal was I'd iron his shirt!) so off we went.It was very, very pleasant and mesmerising,tak pening pulak budak tu berpusing2 dan tak jatuh pulak topi besarnya...talk of having yin and yan in life! Simply incredible.One of these days, I'd like to try whirling like that. :)
The music was better than the dance (the troupe just got back from Jakarta and will be flying back to Istanbul very early the following day..the dancers looked particularly tired)
I woke up energised this morning.Anything sufi would do that to me.Entah mengapa.
4 comments:
Hello Prof:
Happy 50 years of independence!
Thinking of you.
Peace.
Ridwan
Hello Ridhwan!
You should have been here, celebrating the big day with us.
You might be interested in this: the Opposition parties are accusing the government of using budgets for the celebration of our 50th year as part of their electoral campaigns for the forthcoming General Election.
It's just about being smart, isn't it? :)
that is funny Faridah. It was the same think in South Africa.
There was an article in the newswire about Malaysian celebrations yesterday.
A big part was about the 'problems' in race relations.
Anyway, have a great celebration still, and enjoy your weekend.
Peace,
Ridwan
race relations is a global prob, Ridwan.It is to be expected, in fact (esp if a country is multi-religious as well).The concern should be how do we grow together? How do we manage it?By screaming
and pointing fingers at one another won't help us go anywhere although this is the easiest to do.
This morning I received this email from my Amerian friend(in response to an article I sent her about an Arab-American School Principal who was harassed for allowing half of her classes in Arabic and for including a study on Arab culture.It's a private sch...one of the critical responses incuded this ""Now Muslims will be able to learn how to become
terrorists without leaving New York City."):
I attended an anti-discrimination training for work yesterday, presented by an adjudicative law judge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; this included training about discrimination against people because of their race, color, language, or national origin, among other factors. I thought it was interesting and informative; the presenter was very engaging. He suggested that if we have a problem with people speaking other languages in the work place, we need to get over it.
Then I watched the news last night, and saw a story about an American Airlines flight leaving Dallas, Texas, that was delayed because a woman, hearing some other passengers speaking Arabic nearby, wanted to get off. The other passengers were Iraqi-Americans on their way home after having presented at a military training for soldiers on their way to Iraq. Instead of allowing the scared woman to get off, the men were ushered off the plane and put on another flight the next day. Talk about discrimination! I think the article and the news story I just described really emphasise the climate of fear in this country post 9/11. It's a terrible thing and makes my heart ache.
As long as there are people like my friend here (and I think they are the silent majority), we'll be OK.It'll take another generation to be where we wanna be.
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