tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504059632454233163.post6305428424601963489..comments2023-11-30T00:11:27.068+00:00Comments on Anak si Hamid: clever Dick, clever Mat, clever Ah Beng, clever Muthu ???anak si-hamidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01936071509364600235noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504059632454233163.post-35691504506905135272014-09-27T12:24:41.450+01:002014-09-27T12:24:41.450+01:00Thank you Hajah Ros.
As an ex-teacher I'm so ...Thank you Hajah Ros.<br /><br />As an ex-teacher I'm so heartened when I get responses from my readers who say they learn a thing or two from AsH.<br /><br />Your interest in old buildings sounds fascinating. I don't know where you are based. But I have wandered around Pudu Road (KL) and discovered some interesting old shophouses tucked in between the high rise modern mega-buildings. They won't be there for much longer and it will be such a shame if their history is turned into rubble.<br /><br />Years ago, during our 'jalan-jalan' in the Semenanung, we noted more of such 'heritage' shophouses in Batu Pahat, Muar and Kuala Kangsar. But by now, I am quite certain they've been obliterated by modernisation.<br /><br />As you are just retired, that means you're still young enough to scout around our country for such buildings and roads and to photograph and record them. <br /><br />Good luck Hajah Ros and keep on wondering and wandering and writing.anak si-hamidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01936071509364600235noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504059632454233163.post-29823756837001024942014-09-27T09:46:16.575+01:002014-09-27T09:46:16.575+01:00Puan,
I enjoy reading your write-ups, which are i...Puan,<br /><br />I enjoy reading your write-ups, which are informative, stimulating, systematic, well thought out. Researching and writing on some historic buildings in Malaysia, I found some valuable information from a number of your postings. Just retired from public service I am currently indulging in writing, a passion since my school days. I like the way you present your articles. Thank you for the wonderful postings.Hajah Rosnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504059632454233163.post-27435037464328022332014-09-25T10:18:55.074+01:002014-09-25T10:18:55.074+01:00Thank you 'J',
What's so ironic about...Thank you 'J',<br /><br />What's so ironic about the sentence you selected? My childhood and education was spent entirely in Singapore and Malaysia. I taught in Malay medium and English medium schools in Singapore from 1967 to 1978. To escape the 'suffocation' in Singapore, I taught in Brunei for 6 years and later for 2 years in USM.<br /><br />I would suggest you mind your step.<br />"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."<br /> <br />Like some other commentators in AsH, you seem to have a bee in your bonnet about a Malay woman who is married to a white British National. <br /><br />Just to dispel future suspicions and innuendos about how I got to be here in 'merrie olde England' - we did not meet via a 'mail-order bride' network, or in a bar or on the beach. It was all very above board and proper and down right boring! The spouse was then a lecturer in Leicester University and I was a lecturer in a Teachers' Training College in Brunei (also an ex-Singaporean Graduate Teacher). And he is just 2 years older than me!<br /><br />If my 'jodoh' was with an Indian or Chinese national, I would never give up my Singapore/Malaysian Passport either. I would just opt for a PR. "Hujan emas negri orang, hujan batu negri sendiri" - and that is a bona fide Malay saying. Furthermore despite where I am in my spouse's country I still prefer 'belacan' to 'mayonnaise' - both as an attitude and a culinary choice. <br /><br />The Anon poet and I were referring to the script Jawi, not the Malay language per se. Like many other languages, Malay is a hybrid language You might be interested to know that certain key words like 'tua', 'mati', 'ikan' are the same in Malay and Maori.<br /><br />Of course many Malay words are of Sanskrit origin. You would expect that when Southeast Asia has a history (pre-European) of invasions and empires from Hindu India. Look at the proliferation of Malay words derived from the English the Dutch and the Portuguese after over 6 centuries of occupation!<br /><br />Finally , if you feel so strongly about your claims, write your own poem, don't latch on to some one else's work.anak si-hamidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01936071509364600235noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504059632454233163.post-65636713506074594702014-09-25T05:31:31.181+01:002014-09-25T05:31:31.181+01:00"We have to live with this multi-cultural (?)..."We have to live with this multi-cultural (?), divisive (?) 'legacy' of imperial Britain. And I reckon the natives and the immigrants are trying to do the best they can in a very difficult cultural and economic brew."<br /><br /><br />Now that is ironic, seeing it coming from a person who has lived many years in the UK on a permanent resident visa.<br /><br />The Roman alphabet used in Bahasa Melayu today is a foreign system. So is Jawi, imported and influenced from the Middle East. And so was the Old Malay script before, imported and influenced from Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms in South Asia.<br /><br />Even the word "Bahasa" itself is Sanskrit, from the Indian subcontinent.<br /><br />The poem should end:<br /><br />"Dan bahasamu asalnya India, malah 'bahasa' juga asalnya India..."<br /><br /><br />- JAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504059632454233163.post-2232025131761722002014-09-21T09:37:29.300+01:002014-09-21T09:37:29.300+01:00Thank you mustapha and good for you, for using the...Thank you mustapha and good for you, for using the name your father gave you.<br /><br />I do agree with you about how 'anonymity' gives people a lot of courage, especially 'Dutch courage'. It's like 'lontar api, sembunyikkan tangan" eh?<br /><br />I reckon that 'clever mat Heinreich' doesn't know whether to go 'ausgang' or 'ausfart' in his reply, so he goes all yellow.<br /><br />I do get quite a number of such reactions when 'visitors' to AsH get a dose of their own medicine.<br /><br /> anak si-hamidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01936071509364600235noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504059632454233163.post-80399835249553033372014-09-20T17:56:59.830+01:002014-09-20T17:56:59.830+01:00' I am a Malay and married a Malay.'
What ...' I am a Malay and married a Malay.'<br />What has this got to do with the whole thing ?<br />.....and why 'merrie olde England'.....why not India, China, Singapore, Thailand or just 'anywhere' <br /><br />Too bad. I was kind of hoping to hear some answers to Anaksihamid's long posting .<br /><br />Oh...you're right....its always under anonymity that you get most comments. <br /><br />So should I sign off as 'mustapha' or as 'entlassen' or 'anzünden' or 'schießen' or 'heizen'Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504059632454233163.post-77310270733007873832014-09-18T11:03:57.778+01:002014-09-18T11:03:57.778+01:00To Flammenwerfer,
Thank you for the gracious apol...To Flammenwerfer,<br /><br />Thank you for the gracious apology.<br /><br />".. it's hardly Crispin's Day in the exhortation stakes" ?? I had to check on that. What you mean to refer to is Henry V's speech/exhortation to his troops on St Crispin's Day (October 25) at the Battle of Agincourt (1415) against the French, when his troops were outnumbered by three to one. <br /><br />Oh come on, Flammenwerfer, we're talking about a Malay poem, for goodness sake!!<br /><br />And when a Malay is brave enough to succinctly criticise his kinsmen and express his frustrations with them within his cultural context, it should be taken seriously. <br /><br />During my schooldays, many many moons ago, we used 'podah' quite frequently when we want someone to 'get lost', 'to go fly a kite' or to 'buzz off', there's no implication of running off to somewhere foreign. <br /><br />If you are familiar with this Blog, you will be hard put to find paeans of wistfulness for 'merrie old England'. I leave that to the WOGs in my "Tanah Air". <br /><br />Fortunately (or unfortunately, as some might think), I found my 'jodoh' in a Briton. 'Wife of Buchanan' I may be, but I am first and foremost 'Anak si Hamid' - which I chose as the name for my Blog.<br /><br />Thank you for the good wishes - may you too enjoy an invigorating and fulfilling life - up to your 70s and more. anak si-hamidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01936071509364600235noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6504059632454233163.post-91751078842408561902014-09-17T19:58:25.258+01:002014-09-17T19:58:25.258+01:001. Sorry to have offended you. No condescension wa...1. Sorry to have offended you. No condescension was ever meant about what I like about your blog. <br /> <br />2. My comment was strictly about the poem. It was my reaction after reading it. It's hardly Crispin's Day in the exhortation stakes.<br /> <br />3. I got nowhere to podah to. I am a Malay and married a Malay. No merrie olde England to run to and be wistful about. <br /><br />4. Wishing you the best of health. Other seventy year olds I go listen to now:-<br /><br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhVLiHPUOIM<br /><br />FlammenwerferAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com