It's nice to know this

A young man came looking for CERDAS.He's the famous owner of Chinese Muslim restaurants (located in prime areas in KL and PJ) Weiii...I thought ownernya orang tua.Mcm biasa soalan perisik I: the restaurant is your dad's?

Mr. L: no...mine..I own the business.
Me: But you are so young!
Mr. L : I'm also the chef.
(Dlm hati I: bertuahnya awak!)

His beautiful wife also was present.

Me: Where do you work?
Mrs L: I'm a housewife
Me: Dah lama kawin?
Mrs L: 10 years
Me:Ada anak?
Mrs L: Ada.2 org, kecik2.

Looking back, I wonder why, how come I was such a busybody! :)) But we clicked.Rasa mcm clicked lah.I suka couple ni.Serious nak mencari ilmu agama. At first I had planned to put IFC on hold cos' I may not be around to oversee it.Zul would have gone by the time we start it.Dr Azman is going swhere else so who's going to monitor things? But seeing the couple's determination...I thought why should anyone be a hindrance to something meaningful for the hopeful? IFC should not centre around any individual.

Dr. S and I visited Dr. Nerawi at the hospital.Remember that colleague who didn't want to speak with me cos' tengah demam? Well, it's him..he got dengue! The makcik2 told him: and this is why you have to find a wife cepat2.Sakit demam ada isteri nak jaga.

Another baby step

Alhamdulillah, the baby step moves further.

Today, winners of the script-writing workshop met with their directors (thanks to Hafsham).We have someone from Jejak Rasul.I thought he looked familiar.Felt stupid now when I asked him what his name was.Thought it was Prof Nuraihan's brother.Muka macam nak sama.Patut familiar.Dia TV anchor yang famous.MasyaAllah.So humble too.They all are.

Mine tak datang.Got class.Matin came to thank me personally.I said it's from God.There's a bigger plan which wants to happen.I said I need your prayer that IWFF berjalan lancar.Matin ni alim sangat orangnya.I thought he was from England.He's from Canada rupanya.

Ups and Downs

This year has been this trip of ups and downs.Ni tengah up la hari ni. :)
Despite the office being deserted (except for fantastic Thai lady who is my intern now) I think the sponsorship drive has been pretty promising today.Largely my associates and acquaintances except of cos' one government agency which liked our proposal so much.Let's doa that Allah will make it easy on us.I dah tak rak ni.You should see my other friends.Byk casualties.One friend I rang but he said he was at the clinic.I asked can you spare some time, I nak cakap kejap? He said no..I tengah demam sangat ni.Hahaha.Kesian! But this is how it is at the uni now.People do not have time for each other: finishing off work yang menimbun or they are too ill and too sick.

I spoke with my African friend (somehow mereka juga yang gagah perkasa tak jenis makan dek demam!) and we'll work something out.Tak rak! Tak rak! Noraini is off to Portland for 6 months.I want to disappear too after IWFF.

PENAT!

A marathon

4 meetings from morning to the evening. A real marathon.The meeting at Zende Seri Pacific was the most enlightening.Then I dah tak rak after a short one on Tan Sri Ani Arope's memoirs.Gayah and I would need to revise again the chapters we helped design.Something is not right, still.

Dato A would be leaving the uni to be the DG of an org.Haiya... all the good people are leaving.Tak acilah mcm ni.

Family get together

It was my family's turn to gather and ber huu haa. Two of my sisters will be going on umrah this month and next.We arrived late...as usual.But the crowd was still there. Seronok juga catching up with one another.

But I came back feeling like I had food poisoning.Must be too much gassy drinks.Air buah jambu lagi.Nik had to be at Hilton pulak to see how things were before their big event on Monday (today).
Balik rumah, I terus knocked out.All day. I age bad. :)

Syukur alhamdullilah, Z got through the Otak2 interview.She'd be matched with one of the best organisations in the country for her summer internship.Her Ireland trip went well.Saw some pics.Teringat zaman undergrad days I sendiri. A free spirit.Nak ke sana sini, takda sapa nak larang.Heh.

Farewell party for Chew

So the US Embassy threw a farewell party for Chew who had been with them for 38 years.Chew invited his friends and I was among them (thank you,Chew, for years of friendship).We had a garden party at Gerbang Ampang Hilir.Cantik giler rumah ni.I met a few interesting people...Deputy Chair of SUHAKAM, former Dean of Faculty of Law at UM.Kelakar juga dia ni.Nmpk garang.Another new friend,Jannice is such a sweet lady...bab2 sharing food dia sgt cekap.Kita suka ice kacang dan tosay.Dan acar berempah timun. Yum.

Dengan Raymond of Pink Triangle kita bincang pasal human trafficking and pros and cons of legalising prostitution.I told him about the German findings...legalising it would not solve the prob malah aggravates it further cos' it would encourage more human trafficking to fulfill high demands for sex workers.Dato Suhakam former Dean of Law tu pun kata ada dua separate issues kat sini: satu human trafficking, satu rights for people to work as sex workers ( by choice).Both Raymond and I agreed on where do you draw the line between choice and forced sex service.

Besoknya (today, as I write this) meeting ACCIN pulak. Mcm biasa I sorang je womannya.Dato Ma was quick to pick my suggestion and I hope we'd work around some of the key issues raised today.

Then I balik to pick Nik and Rosenidah to visit Zanel who had been unconscious for the past 3 weeks.Zarina broke down.No sign of him waking up but I thought the progress was tremendous since he collapsed 3 weeks ago.I know him as a young boy while doing voluntary work with Thalassaemia Association in the late 90s.Byk juga activities fundraising, family day, awareness campaign we did together.Him and his mom are active members.

Semoga Zanel terus dipelihara Allah.

Malam:Family get together.Barbecue.

iium.fm

Dr. Riza thought we could do with some home publicity with the Islamic Youth Short Film Competition '13 so she got her iium.fm students to interview me on our campus radio.Woot woot.But my question to them was: do you have many listeners? :D The two boys said their slot would have a higher rating than others.Ya right...they were pretty charming but how would radio listeners know, kan? :)

We had a nice time talking to an imagined group of listeners mungkin seramai 30-40 orang.But the kids had a good practice I guess.

And that matters too.

Sreya

I would like to document another good friend who is ever ready to assist me whenever I whine.

Her name is Sreya, an Indian national but a PR or an expat living in Singapore.You cannot imagine how generous she is. So open-minded.We met at a women's conference in Singapore and every time I travel south to Kota Singa, we would meet, go for drinks, dinner, etc.And we would plan how to bridge differences: between races, religions, communities and countries.Kanika's Hope project started with her (I told them to get Sreya's advice...she had been working with communities, professionally trained) so when the project took off and now doing so well even long after the expiry date of it as a uni internship project, Hope continues to spread hope...now in 3 countries and soon 7 organisations...dgn izin Allah menemukan all the right people.

When I rang Sreya to discuss challenges I faced organising iwff, she was quick to help fix it.She would be organising her 2nd Benggali film festival this year, also in Sept. and told me she'd announce it at her do and even doing extra by putting me in touch with her network.She believes in cultural integration so that we'd promote love, trust, understanding and all those jazz.Rasa nak nangis, kan? But this is Sreya. She goes beyond race, nationality, religion.I am bersyukur for her, for all of you who keep visiting my blog even when it's on private mode (ahaks).

Thank you for being my friends.

Ma'thurat 46

"O Allah! This is the hour of the advent of Your night, and the departure of Your day, and the sounds of Your heralds, so grant me forgiveness"

We are coming close to the end of Ma'thurat (Ma'thurat 46 is the second last verse).I think this verse is a reminder of our need to seek forgiveness from Allah on a consistent basis.How often we forget as we chase after dunia and the worldly.Ask, and you will be given.Know what to ask so that when Allah gives, you recognise it immediately.Otherwise, if your prayer is too general, you would still be ungrateful when Allah gives other things to you: your health, your wealth or even your suffering so that you get closer to Him.

It has been a busy weekend for me and Nik (as always) and it will get busier as weddings and kenduris take place in the family.Mana yang nak pi umrah, sibuk nak pi umrah (2 of my sisters are going, InsyaAllah..separate trips.Bengy, the deer who has been with us will be slaughtered...finally.He almost killed my brother in law 2 years ago) Nik said, "Tak larat nak makan pet orang." :)

You have a good week ahead you, folks. 

PRU13 and the future of Malaysian universities

GERAK or MOVE, an NGO consisting of concerned academics of academic freedom and teaching professionalism at the tertiary level organised a forum last night at University Malaya.We did not expect the turn out to be so encouraging.The panelists were Prof. Terence Gomez, Prof Dato Rahman Embong, Prof Zahrom and Diana Wong.Terence was a real scholar..very balanced and factual.He presented the analysis of past general elections and showed us a few surprises (for me at least):from the analysis, it was clear that the coalition between DAP,Keadilan,PAS didn't actually work in most of the elections.The states won based on the strength of each party (DAP in Penang, Perak, PAS in Kedah and Kelantan.Selangor a mix of both in different constituencies).

It's nice to know during Pak Lah's time, the swing for BN was overwhelming, mengalahkan zaman Mahathir and Terence said it was during Pak Lah's time that he tried to address REAL issues: educational reforms,development in rural areas, bringing back the importance of agriculture (which Mahathir dismissed sampai tukar Universiti Pertanian jadi Universiti Putra cos' he didn't think pertanian was important.Baik dia buat kereta and twin towers supaya kita semua makan besi),uniting the Malays through his policy Islam Hadhari (which would appeal to both PAS and religiously inclined UMNO supporters now in the majority).Malangnya Pak Lah didn't deliver his excellent policies (attacks from within were too strong gamaknya plus his own personality...ubat resdung which made him cepat mengantuk, selalu dtg lambat, etc)

Terence said teringat pesan Syed Hussein Alatas who fought against political intrusion in universities.He (Alatas) said Anwar Ibrahim was responsible for this cos' when AI was Minister or Deputy for Education, dia pun sama.

Diana Wong lamented on the lack of intellectual voice during times like this and that it is the students' movements that actually brought a lot of changes where academic freedom is concerned and indeed that evening, the young voices came out as very articulate, forward thinking, bold and confident.Everyone was impressed.

Without wanting to be riak...

...syukur alhamdulillah, it has been a productive week so far.It's my interview week.Dr. Nazri flew all the way from KT to chat with me on his postmodern research.A young scholar who seems to be doing well running the extra mile.Engku's friend (thank you Engku.No...I didn't tell him your secrets.Haha) I love the tembaga vase he gave me as a thank you gift.I said why susah2.But when I saw the beautiful thing, dalam hati ckp er..takpa, susah2. :))

brass vase from Tganu

I was with a group of New Zealanders (from everywhere in NZ, here to promote NZ education.I thought the rest would be here but the alums who came were new faces except Michael Warren.)I had a whale of time meeting people, jual IWFF. :) Will put pics later. Met two interesting characters from  Waikato.Both from the Management Sch.Kelakar giler.

I will meet Prof Kenney (finally!) besok.Entah apa dia nak interview I ni.Goreng, jangan tak goreng.Watch this space for an update.He's famous for his books on rebellious Muslims.Ahaks.

Sementara itu, it's musim menganyam ketupat.I'm glad I'm not alone feeling so fedup with the way things are going.We try to convince ourselves that this is just a phase, that we had it worse before and we survived and became better and stronger.Let's hope that that is the case now.Just hang on, folks.

To Z who has been busy with internship interviews...good luck, gal.

Blue skies and everything nice

 Nadra, the genius. :)

 pasar tani

jambu

does not this make you hungry again?

(Malaysian-Portugese dinner with the family, another dish belum sampai)

...except for yesterday's family dinner and today's wedding, not much happening indeed.I am quite disappointed with how things are at work.I think a lot of people are.Partly I think what is happening to this country affects tertiary institutions too.And people won't tell you the truth.Do we have enough money or not to do things? Kalau takda, kita buat cara takda. Or kita cari sampai ada. :)

In the last kulliyyah assembly, someone asked why I didn't speak as usual.I told her I had nothing left to say cos' when I spoke (and so many times and passionately so) nothing was done.So I wonder if people could hear or understand at all.If they were not prepared to listen (and only God knows why), no point wasting your time.Remember one of Nadra's principles?  Move on. :) And don't worry about people saying things about you.No one knows what you go through so do not expect them to understand. This reminds me of wht happened to my sis in law recently.But she's lucky that when she  discussed her situation with her Boss, he immediately understood.But then again, he went to 3 ivy leagues for his education.I guess THAT would make the difference.Woot woot! :)

This is what I have decided: finish up IWFF and probably start looking around for a change.

Inspired!

I was so inspired so early this morning.Here's celebrating.

Reasons:

1.Very early in the morning, a friend who's close to me rang to ask/confirm what she heard from someone that I said such and such of her (my first reaction was to laugh at such a ridiculous story)

I was inspired cos' she had the courage to check with me first if what she heard was true.

I was inspired cos' Allah watched over me (iyalah..if my fren simpan sakit hati, God knows apa lagi akan berlaku, kan?) so we spoke.I said the next time if ada kaki hasut (syaiton) dtg, just tell him/her to come to me and thrash out apa masalah sebenarnya dia nak hasut orang kiri kanan.Takda kerja lain? We are all supposed to be busy.Like I have time to do this and that yang tak berfaedah?

So my good friend and I learnt something..and know what to do if in the future ada lagi si binggung nak create cerita macam tu.

2.Very early in the morning too I was inspired by kasihsayang Allah.You know that at our age, we all have loads of responsibilities, right.Mana career lagi, looking after aged parents lagi but just do this after solat Subuh: baca doa Nabi Yunus so that segala fitnah hidup dapat diatasi.

You'll start your day wanting to play Eric Darius. :)) (iyalah zikir, zikir juga)

Have a happy weekend ahead you, folks.

I have no time to layan 'deranged' people.Nak tau cerita sebenar, always check more than one source or better still, go directly to the source (of unhappiness). :)

Ask for no bullshit, get some more!

Kee Thuan Chye was our guest yesterday.He was barred from one place in Penang, yah?

But our Dept has always been open to all sorts of writers and speakers. I was late (biz as usual with IWFF etc) but made it to the Q&A (Prof Quayum was kind enough to remind me).I thought some questions were really good (on secular state vs theoractic state) And these were undergrads ~ being so critical and involved.When Q asked me if it were OK to invite Kee to read his book Ask for no bullshit, get some more!, I said why not.We cannot be overly protective of the students.They are intelligent enough to take care of themselves.Kee did say my bullshit is my own..you can disagree. :)

It was a nice session although the topic given was strictly on his plays and life as a writer.

Autograph signing

A different kinda intrusion

A team of 10 from Australia arrived from Singapore yesterday morning, armed with needles, glue guns, buttons, threads, hairclips and other 'dangerous weapons' for friendship. Today, they with another ally, a team of one from Singapore (ahaks!) and another from Malaysia (of one too) gathered at the Projek Harapan first initiated by Kanika, supervised by me some years back.Note how it grows from one country into 3 now?From 4 organisations to 5 (I roped in Yasmin cos' she's working with special children too).This is definitely better than a weekend at Sempoerna or Lahad Datu.A different kinda intrusion!

Verity has agreed to train Yasmin's staff on how to get the kids to be financially independent and employed like the ones she brought with her from Adelaide.Gosh, they paid for their own airfare, you know.Boleh pulak mengajar orang lain ie kids at the Krashpad).

Some pics from this afternoon's workshop:

 Linda made this for me

(she said I want to give this to you

walhal all I did was greeted her hi Linda, welcome

to KL)

This is Linda, flew all the way

from Adelaide to teach bdk2 at Krashpad

how to make hairclips from used

materials

 Demi masa! Good people of different creed and nation

helping and working together

More kids and more Aussie friends



 Cheh..gambar ni blur pulak.Verity yang cantik

menawan tu (ketua)

This is how they pack hair ties and jual at AUD2.50

sampai boleh donate ke Krashpad sebanyak hampir RM7K

 They did not speak each other's tongue

but the atmosphere was electrifying!

My fav pic

Simply amazing

Nadra's Principles

A lot we can learn from this little girl who is barely 2.

Her first principle: when faced with a hurdle or an obstacle, instead of crying or whining, find other ways to get through to where you wanna be.

The second principle: act blur to get to where you want.Do not mind what others say or think of you...just continue with what you are doing.

The third principle: always find something new to keep yourself occupied/entertained

The fourth principle: you do not have to swallow what is forced unto you.

The fifth principle: there would be people who want your space and will 'hit' you from behind (little Kaisah wanting her own chair back)...ignore and do not give up.

Haha..I was watching the little girls this weekend and thought what I saw would be useful to us and how we cope with our challenges in real life.

Part Two

Hisssh...I tak puas hati betul kes Sulu invasion kat Sabah ni.Or how the gomen reacts.
Tak nmpk pun muka2 panik.Gamaknya tht is why so slow in solving the issue.Mahathir pun senyap.Takkan takda cadangan2 bernas how to overcome the prob.

Everyone tanya kenapa hantar polis.I tanya orang rumah are they trained to fight in wars.Nik kata ada  pasukan komando polis yg tersendiri.Adakah kita tak cukup latihan perang? Takkan musuh kibar bendera putih, terus percaya? Takkan trick2 perang tak diajar kpd polis2 dan asykar2 kita? Lebih byk soalan dari jawaban dan ketiadaan jawaban yg bernas, menakutkan saya.

Yang pasti, orang yang menipu takkan terlepas.Teori tupai (sepandai2 tupai melompat,akhirnya akan jatuh jua).

Go figure.

Part Three

Was on skype with Z on Sabah intrusion.Wough,she has more info than us in Msia.She gets her news from this twitter group of journalists from all over the world so the analysis pun bagus juga.Among others are:


1.The Philippines pun will be having their general election soon so ada teori kata apa yg berlaku adalah ploy musuh gomen sekarang..to undermine the current leadership to be seen weak.

2.With gomen kita pulak, PM tak reti nak buat apa cos' ni pertama kali sovereignty kita tercabar.It does not help gomen tak keluar kenyataan rasmi cos' rakyat will speculate.Ini menambahkan rasa panik dan tidak selamat.The country should be together.Mereka telah bandingkan cara Obama handled isu tembakan di sekolah itu hari.He kept the country together...consoling and giving hope bukan pi buat statement saya baru lancar instagram.Please get Nik's help how to manage the PR bit,OK? :))

3.Remember Vietnam? The war was not won by sophisticated weapons but guerilla tactics.Di Sabah gitu juga.Merempoh tak tentu pasal dgn bala tentera kita mungkin akan menjadikan keadaan lebih huruhara.Sebab projek IC ni,rakyat Msia di Sabah hanya ada 25% kata one journalist (yg ni local journalist not from the group.Yg ni I tambah)So patutlah rakyat Sabah marah kenyataan PM when he said jgn takut...Lahad Datu is so far away.Dia tau tak sekeliling tu org Sulu yg dikira org Filipina?

Wei..kalu kita gaduh with Indonesia...mcmana pulak?