A few days ago I received a request from my nephew Mahzan, one of the two who hounded me into starting this blog.Only three of those little horrors in the picture are his. The prettiest one next to him is his long-suffering wife, Sabrina. This photograph was taken during last year's Hari Raya in the Scots (sort of) Uncle's garden.
He asked if I could indicate a kind of signpost in my archives so that he and his children can recognise and read a family-related posting. Okay 'Zan, I know you're dreadfully tied up with work so I can only devise this DIY system. I have added (CsH) to all the relevant postings. That has taken up a great deal of my time which I could better spend in snoozing and watching the grass grow.
And by the way, I have also prepared a set of questions for each of the family postings - to be answered by you and your brood. If you have any problems, consult your nephew Ariff. He has read some of my scribblings.
And here's a musical signpost from AsH.
There are numerous lyrics for this well-known traditional Welsh folk song. This is the one I learned in school. And thank you Din, for the acronym.
The ash grove how graceful, how plainly 'tis speaking The wind through it playing has language for me. Whenever the light through its branches is breaking, A host of kind faces is gazing at me. The friends from my chilhood again are before me Each step brings a memory as freely I roam. With soft whispers laden the leaves rustle o'er me The ash grove, the ash grove alone is my home.
"A Village in Malaya" by Marion Saynor is about Kim Tong's family who live in a resettled village sometime during the early 1950s.
It was 8 years after the Second World War. The young Elizabeth had just been crowned Queen of her homeland and of the Empire. The Communist Insurgency was at its height. I still remember those times when we were travelling by car to visit relatives in Kuala Lumpur. We could not bring too much food with us and we were constantly stopped at Police checkpoints. I also recall seeing soldiers (Malay and British) patrolling the hills and roadside in Johore.
And this is how they described and categorised us!!! "How these Chinese work!" The 'real people of Malaya' are the Malays who "always enjoy life in the warm sun, the slow movement of their boats on the river and the idle chatter with their friends are part of their unhurried way of living".
It's clear to them the Malays have the life of Larry and so if they are not as rich as the Chinese they only have themselves to blame. This reminds me of the bumiputra British bleating about the unfair competition from the immigrant Indians who keep their shops open for longer hours, for 7 days of the week, thus knocking them out of business.
But the Malays do have one talent as Kim Tong (according to the missionaries) discovered. Thank goodness for that!
But look who's here? It's a white missionary nurse with her Chinese helper. The above text says it all. The clinic provided medical care for the body as well as salvation for the soul in the form of the Bible and Bible stories. It's a BOGOF like they say in Leicester. Buy One Get One Free!
During the 1950s, after the Communist Revolution of 1949, the missionaries were kicked out of China. To fulfil their mission they recamped in Singapore and Malaya - with the blessings of the British Colonial Government - to 'assist' in building up medical facilities and education in their SE Asian colonies.
Wong and Hong in 1971 wrote , "Religion was the motivational spirit behind the various Christian missionary bodies in their endeavours to open and maintain schools in Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak and Sabah".
Although their contacts were mainly with Chinese Buddhists and Indian Hindus they did manage to sneak into Malay space. Is it Mrs Romlee or Mrs Rom Lee (not likely, I think). Or is it Mrs Ramlee (a Malay name) - but with a son named Baby Chu? Very, very perplexing.
Anyway in Marion Saynor's book this is what a Chinese lady, Mrs Ming looked like.
And here is our Mrs Romlee.
It's amazing how such a simple and simplistic book can elucidate the workings and tactics of the soul-snatchers then.
Today it has become more corporatised and hi-tech. The Malaysia for Jesus website has this to announce. They now have an "evangelistic playlist ..... distributed to over 2,000 Muslim Malay students. About fifty additional young people receive it daily. There are gospel recordings and powerful testimonies from converted Muslims. Portions of the Malay Bible are available".
My niece at Universiti Malaya was duped into one of these gatherings.
Thank you Sejfruddin for this video - " a sarcastic song about being a Bosnian Muslim in Europe surrounded by Christian neighbours".
It was not too long ago - in January 2000 on the Newsnight programme with Jeremy Paxman - when the then Archbishop of York, John Hapgood (now Lord Hapgood) claimed that Islam is "dogmatic." The Koran is "authoritative" while Christianity is "flexible", Islam attracts "a certain type of personality and Muslims are happiest in an Islamic state where religion and secular law coincide". In other words please keep away from our white Christian countries.
Then in September 2007 in his Regensburg Speech, Pope Benedict quoted a criticism of Islam linking Islam and violence.
The well-known British novelist Martin Amis, after the London 7/7 bombing, declared, "The Muslim community will have to suffer until it gets its house in order" and suggested that deportations and strip searches might one day be in order for people of Middle Eastern religion.
These are quite recent statements made by prominent Christian leaders and an acclaimed novelist to boot! You would expect such ignorance and bigotry from the racist British National Party or the yobs from the ghettos of Britain's housing estates.
But such prejudice from the West has a long pedigree. It can be found even before the Christian Era, from the time of the Greeks.
"Once upon a time Hermes was driving all over the world in a cart stuffed with falsehoods, wickedness, and deceit, distributing a little of his load in each country. But when he came to the land of the Arabs, it is said, the cart suddenly broke into pieces, and the inhabitants plundered its contents as if they were valuable merchandise, so that there was nothing left for Hermes to carry elsewhere".
The Moral of the Story : The Arabs are the greatest liars and deceivers on earth. Their tongues know not the truth.
This story comes from the Fables of Aesop, Penguin Classics, 1971, No. 152.
So you can see the Arabs have had a bad press even before or maybe during the same time as the Jews. I wonder, what if ..... the Prophet had been a Serb????
More surprising, check this.Note how at Item 986 the Koran is categorised as pseudo-revelation and 'Mahomet' amongst others is a false prophet. However at 985, only Christian texts are acknowledged as 'true' revelations.
Here, for 'Orthodoxy' or true faith etc. read everything Christian.
For 'Heterodoxy' (item 984) which refers to false and wrong beliefs, Mohammedan, Mussulman, Moslem, Islamite are thrown into the same cauldron with the other non-Christian pariah beliefs.
All these extracts are not taken from an ancient Dictionary of Christianity. I discovered this in my Penguin Roget's Thesaurus, 1953 Edition, reprinted 1964! I am sure Hapgood, Amis, Salman Rushdie, Naipaul, Blair and Bush(?), Wolfowitz, Netanyahu, Ariel Sharon, Wole Solyinka, Bishop Michael Nazir Ali, Archbishop Nicholas Okoh Primate of Nigeria and countless other eminent Islamophobes must have consulted this secular Bible. As for the Pope, he does not need a Thesaurus. He has his army of librarians and consultants.
Of course all the above versions have been 'adjusted' so to speak when I looked at the Penguin Roget's 1982 and Longman's 1984 Editions. I wondered if the Editors had gone through a Damascene experience.
But the deed is done and the die is cast as we witness today's battlefields and carnage.
A Reply to Singaporean-in-Exile aka Nowhere Man aka Baba Ben
Of course you are never forgotten by your mates from 30 years ago.
Firstly you need to sort out the hole in your head, "to stop your mind from wandering".
"Where I belong I'm right where I belong".
So wander on when you can to visit your Rainbow Connection or the JSS Lovers and Dreamers. But don't wait till you're 64 as you threatened to do. By that time I will be pushing up daisies and as 'bibik' said, "you dah tak handsome lagi" like this. Also Oi Bek expects you to keep on crooning.
Furthermore, remember this is one of AsH's many talents.
Please click on the arrow on this home-made video.
After a somewhat long hiatus we caught up with Irene again, with the help of Oi Bek and Lely.
Like the rest of that uniquely cheeky and harmonious bunch of students from Jurong Secondary School Sec. 4F 1977, Irene
means a lot to me. We all go back a long, long way and though our lives have been filled with joy and pain we try to maintain that quintessential core of our friendship - love and loyalty.
It had been a weekend of eating,
walking in the park,
relaxing,
and meeting new friends like Comot.
Best of all, Irene met up once again with someone she had not seen for 33 years.
Thank you girls and Din. It was just like yesterday.
The English, with their barmy sense of humour described the invasion by the Vikings in the year 800 as a series of laping and rooting (raping and looting).
The title of this posting is a take on the circus of April 23rd which, in other words refers to "Pimping and Whoreing". with Blair as the Ringmaster.
This much-advertised event is organised by the National Achievers Congress (NAC) under the auspices of Success Resources International (SRI). SRI is Asia's largest Seminar Company with its headquarters in Singapore. The CEO is Richard Tan. In 2003 the Singapore Government acknowledged Mr Tan's entrepreneurial savvy by awarding him the prestigious Phoenix Award - given to only one successful entrepreneur from Singapore each year.
The National Achievers Congress (NAC) started in 1992, a clone of SRI. It is "an assembly of world-class experts to help ordinary persons achieve outstanding results in a highly competitive global market. NAC started with a need to assemble world-class experts and professionals in one location to learn, discuss and advance breakthroughs in business competencies to vast audiences at a very affordable price".
In other words, a Congress for leading wealth consultants and serial entrepreneurs to share, at a price, their tricks of the trade and the rituals for worshipping Mammon. It's easy to see where Blair fits in.
Just as a matter of interest, here are the lists of Sponsors of the Event in both Malaysia and Singapore - the proverbial Three Monkeys who see, speak and hear no Evil.
The Press Release by the NAC and SRI described MahaGuru Blair as a 'respected and admired world leader', and 'one of the best speakers in business today, offering in-depth analysis and approach to the opportunities that lie ahead'. How true. Blair is the Sifu of Opportunism!
However, there is a deafening silence, a self-imposed censorship on Blair's record as a war-monger at best and a War Criminal at worst. His and Bush's culpability in the Iraq War that killed and maimed innocent civilians and turned Iraq into rubble needs no further embellishment. They are there on record - except for the NAC and SRI.
NOT ONE WORD ON IRAQ. Not even a hint or a sniff.
It is like writing a Curriculum Vitae on Hitler without mentioning the killing of the Jews, the Gypsies,the homosexuals, and the mentally ill.
This is what I would like to communicate to Blair.
About a year ago Deva Kumarasiri, an immigrant postmaster of Sri Lankan origin at Carlton, Nottingham, hit the news when he refused to serve Asian customers who can't speak English. He had been in Britain for 18 years and he was quoted as saying "When I left Sri Lanka I left the culture, customs and language and have done my utmost to be part of this country's culture......He peppers his conversation with the local terms 'duck' and 'dear' .....flies the Union Jack in his garden and on his Land Rover. His wife is a nurse and his daughters....want to join the RAF". How fortunate Britain is to have him as an immigrant. Some countries in SE Asia are not that lucky.
I just wondered if he dared to give the same (mis)treatment to the immigrants from Eastern Europe who can barely speak English?
In November 2009 it was reported that an ex-teacher, a Mr Rajinder Singh will be able to sign up as a true blue member of the racist, right-wing British National Party (BNP). What links this Mr Singh with these white extremists? They both hate Muslims and Islam.
Some years ago in Leicester, the spouse was sitting in the bus and saw in passing a poster at an Indian Sweetshop which read "Islam rapes your mothers". Based on that claim there must be untold numbers of uncircumcised males scattered all over the globe whose Muslim fathers raped their non-Muslim mothers. Generally females are unwanted and discarded.
So, what aspects of British cuture do you have to cultivate to be regarded as British?
Based on that rebuttal by Mark Pack, a stalwart of the Liberal Democratic Party (one of Britain's major political parties) I could be British too except I hate Easter chocolates. I'm not a member of the Church of England. I find cricket boring and football and rugby are too full of sweaty men in shorts running after a ball. My father was a 'loyal' worker in the British Army and he too was given his 'thank you' certificates. I quite like the Ealing comedies and I never get tired of watching re-runs of Monty Python, Blackadder and Fools and Horses.
However people like Mr Rajinder Singh and the BNP adherents will not have the likes of me even if I have English fish and chips coming out of my ears. Even the nasty Daleks (of the Dr Who series) want to exterminate me.
But hang on! I have no wish to be British. I'm just happy to be a Malaysian spouse of a British national.
However, such are the desires of Muslims to be accepted and acceptable in Britain.
Maybe Muslims in Britain should take up Morris Dancing and learn to exclaim "b......r off" at the appropriate moments.
Only three of those little horrors in the picture are his. The prettiest one next to him is his long-suffering wife, Sabrina. This photograph was taken during last year's Hari Raya in the Scots (sort of) Uncle's garden. 
