BE PATRIOTIC

Thanks to Mark for alerting me on that fine BBC article on how lost our Muslim brethrens are back home.

They are apparently quite torn between the present, the past, and the future...

The present being, how to be a ‘good’ Muslim...

The past being, the courage to confront and accept their historical Hindu roots...

And the future being, how to keep abreast with ‘modernity’...

I truly hope that they can strike a good balance between those three elements.

My take is...

I wish our Muslim brothers and sisters remained 'Malay' rather than turning 'Arabic'.

On a related front, I know of an Egyptian guy who sneered at a Bangladesh female student.

She wears the Bangladeshi sari often, revealing her mid-rift.

He says...

I don't like the way she dresses: it is not Islamic...

She says she is Muslim, but I don't believe she is Muslim...

Sounds familiar?

On another front, I was reading the comments on Screenshots while cleaning my teeth after lunch...

I grinned widely; observing Jeff's blood pressure shooting up again when he lamented that his blogging is getting futile...

Futile, because commentators once again hijacked his topic, turning it into the usual arguments on race...

Says Observer, a regular Screenshots undercover commentator...

Only when I am abroad am I a Malaysian!

Earlier, albeit on a different yet related subject, Paul Warren, a regular contributor to Malaysiakini's letter column, declares...

I am a Malaysian and I know that only too well when I go abroad and to make sure that I am not put together in the same basket as the Indians from India or Fiji or where ever.

My wife does the same to make sure she is not regarded as a Chinese from Mainland China, Hong Kong or Taiwan or anywhere else.

Hey brother, same-same here...

When I first came to Japan, I used my Chinese characters for my name.

The Mainland Chinese students came in hordes to celebrate their newfound comradeship with me in Mandarin, and I went belly up...

Thanks, but no, no, no...

As I mentioned somewhere before, I may not be the 'King of Cannot Speak Chinese' but I am pretty close...

So, since then, I dropped the use of the Chinese characters like that proverbial hot ubi kentang...

And then, keatix, a regular (?) commentator to my humble blog (thank you, thank you) had this to say...

Lrong, U can help out with the controlled unpegging of the RM.... be patriotic a bit mah... hee hee...

Be patriotic???

Ok, ok...

Must admit that I can't help much with the unpegging, but perhaps there is one small thing I can do...

See here for hint...

Patriotic enough or not?

Heehee heeeeh heeeheeheee...

Also, I am looking forward to sinking my teeth into that delicious kari ayam dengan ubi kentang my missus concocted for me tonight...

* Actually, it is last night's leftover lah... *

Patriotic, even to the extent of my taste buds...

Ok?