From Top to Bottom

What with a Coptic Christian making a nasty video/movie "Innocence of Muslims" and Tom Holland, the Cambridge Double First in Latin and English conniving with Channel 4 (British TV) to slag off  Islam and its history, the news of the world has been very unpleasant for 1.6 billion Muslims.  That however, does not take into account the daily sufferings and deaths in Palestine, Afghanistan and other Muslim countries touched by western "democratic ideals"'

But what do we expect?  Islam, as the world's favourite bete noir will always face the brunt of attack by the Judaeo-Christian culture - on print and/or electronic media.  It reminds me of this quote by Ivo Andric  (1892-1975).

Change "a nation's" (2nd line) to "the world's" and "the nation's" (5th line) to  'world's".

In his speech condemning the 'attack' on the US Consulate in Libya by a 'mob' responding in anger to the American film "Innocence of Muslims" - Obama warned on 13 September 2012  "that no act of terror would dim the light of the values that we proudly shine on the rest of the world  ...... We will not be deterred - we will keep going, we will keep going because the world needs us.  We are the one indispensable power in the world."

These words can only come from those that Andric described as "unqualified and incompetent" suffering a "huge and insatiable vanity."

But in this nation that is Malaysia, we have the same petty, inadequate egoists scrounging for power and control.  They can be found in the higher echelons of politics,  educational institutions,  religious bureaucracies of all shades of beliefs, the Press and  the legal establishments.

Such shenanigans at the top play havoc with the small fry at the bottom.  Our husband-and-wife road sweepers, Osman and Aisha had to keep on paying and waiting for seven years before they were given the key to their low-cost flat at Jelatek.  But they could not move in because the water supply which had been promised on the 16th of September was still unavailable.  Even worse, they had been told to vacate their Puchong low-cost accommodation when they received their keys to the new flat!  The rakyat like Osman and Aisha do not have the time, or the skills or the network and the clout to get their voices heard.

Tomorrow we shall try to go into the vipers' pit and speak to the developer and make an inquiry on their behalf.  As two pensioners with no titles, no clout and no chains to pull we do not hold much hope in getting through to the relevant pen-pushers.

As it is we still suffer  noisy assaults from Ikan Bakar Sekinchan's establishment.  On Hari Raya eve we were blasted with Hindi music from 8pm to after midnight.  On Hari Raya itself, we were given an encore as soon as  Eid Prayers were over.  We were told these were the workers from IBS celebrating Eid Mubarak!  I thought they should be entertained and entertaining their masters at the latter's residence.  And last week, at 2am we suffered more ear-splitting music from Datuk Jamal's IBS establishment.

Who can we complain to?  I suppose we have to wait for the announcement of the date for the next election - when we can try to play one against the other.  Dream on....AsH.