Bukit Dinding and all our Highland

When I was in Primary Six at Pasir Panjang English School, Singapore in 1957, we had to be able to fill in a sketch map of Malaya with various geographical details as required by the school syllabus.

Note the location of the resource-rich States of Perak, Selangor and Negri Sembilan, all "acquired" by the 1874 Pangkor Treaty.  The marginal and poorer States of Perlis and the East Coast only had rice and coconuts - which offered little scope for profitable enterprise.

This morning, on our way home from breakfast, I made the spouse stop the car to let me snap a few more pictures of my much-loved Banjaran Titiwangsa.   In my 1957 map, Banjaran Titiwangsa was known as merely the Main Range! What a put-down name for the backbone of the Malay Peninsula.

Banjaran Titiwangsa as seen on the road from Sri Rampai to Setiawangsa.  

Banjaran Titiwangsa, if you can appreciate it behind the clutter of development.

Banjaran Titiwangsa and her magnificient limestone outcrops, again overshadowed by the ugly pinnacles of development and greed.

I shall savour such views of my mountain-backbone - but I fear that in 30 or 50 years' time or even sooner, "some rich men (will) come and rape" (2.42 in the video) those mountains.  

From the age of 13 (Primary School), through my Senior Cambridge, Higher School Certificate and my degree at Singapore University, geography (and maps especially) has always been my favourite subject, yet nowhere was I made aware of how tin mining and the clearance of forests for rubber had ravaged the environment of the Semenanjung in the pursuit of profit and "progress". In the time of my youth, I suppose few people thought about challenging and criticising the desecration of the landscape in the non-western parts of the British Empire by the Brits and their compradores.  

However, in one of my spouse's old books - "Illustrated Guide to the Federated Malay States" (1923) edited by Cuthbert Woodville and illustrated by Mrs H.C. Barnard - I noticed a reference, bland though it may be , to what happens to a valley as a consequence of tin mining:

A river valley dug, flooded, scraped and scoured for tin as noted in 1923.

When I got home, I decided to check "The Last Resort", one of my favourite songs by the  Eagles.  It encapsulates so much of what has, is, and will happen to the beautiful landscape of our Tanah Air.

The rape of the land of the First People (The "Red Indians" ) in USA was based on the ideology of the Manifest Destiny (referred to as "destiny" in the above song).  "We satisfy our endless needs, justify our bloody deeds. In the name of destiny, in the name of God" (5.11).

 As for Malaya, the violation of the Semenanjung's landscape was engineered by British Imperialism and powered by imported labour, merchants, traders and administrators from China and India especially after the Pangkor treaty. 

Here is a sample of the instigation and drive to develop(?) and exploit (?) the resources of the Semenanjung

The Manifest of the Semenanjung's Destiny.

 

I was quite taken by this Youtube comment on the Eagles' song:

" .... a simple fact that no white man (me included) could ever love this land as much as any Native American, they fought for over 400 years to keep their home and we just kept pushing and pushing them......" by Robert Flor.

On the matter of love and respect for their land, can the bumiputra Malay-Muslim be compared to the Native American?  Unfortunately not, I fear, despite Islam's teaching that we Muslims are supposed to be the Stewards of Creation :

"Cannot misuse all these natural resources beyond their immediate needs"

When we, in our arrogance decide to place our abode in locations that threaten and abuse nature .....

....... then we and others in the vicinity have to pay a price. 

We desire (and developers are always happy to feed that wish and vanity) that our abodes be built on high land or high slopes so that we can get a much-envied exclusive view and establish that we have achieved high stature in our life style.

We desire such elevated locations because it will promise us high returns on investment.

We also desire such lofty positions because it ensures good feng shui.

So when I noted several banners appearing in Setiawangsa .....

......  I decided to look up the background of Bukit Dinding.

This map taken from the website Mapcarta shows the position of Bukit Dinding between Setiawangsa in the southeast to Wangsa Maju in the north.  Bukit Dinding is 291 meters high, which is just a little short of a few metres to be classified as a mountain. A mountain has to be 1000 feet high (304.8 meters).  It is a very popular spot for hikers  and cyclists.

For the past six to seven years, we have seen a growing number of youngsters, both male and female ( almost 100% Malays) gathering on weekends and public holidays to hike along the path that goes up Bukit Dinding. Good for them, we said.  Sometimes we can see almost 100 cars sitting along the road, as well as motor bikes and bicycles - all, as a rule, conscientiously parked.  It is a sight worth remembering.  So the preservation and protection of Bukit Dinding means a lot - not only to the residents at the bottom of the hill - but to these youngters enjoying a good healthy exercise instead of parking themelves in front of the TV or wandering around shopping malls. 

I was quite curious about that route up the slope. So four days ago on a weekday afternoon when there wouldn't be any walkers this late-septuagenarian decided to give it a look. 

Oh, how I wish I could turn the clock back to 53 years ago when at 25, with a group of NCC Officers, we drove from Singapore to climb Gunung Ledang (Mount Ophir), on the border of Melaka and Johor.  Gunung Ledang is 1276 meters high.  On the afternoon of the next day we got down to the base of the mountain and drove back to Singapore.  The climb and the view at the top was awesome.  It was worth every painful joint and muscle ache in the body.

Before I left for that trip, my Abah gave me this petua (advice).  Do not pluck or break any leaf or twig or branch or flower on your climb up Gunung Ledang.  Secondly, do not look back or anwer when you hear someone calling your name from behind you.  Aaah, father knows best.

Oh Malaysia, you do not know how lucky you are to have all this natural beauty - to have all these hills, mountains, and forests, all these wonderful coastlines and rivers, to savour and appreciate.  But I fear there won't be much of a legacy to leave behind for future generations if the present one does not make a greater effort to preserve what is left - places like Bukit Dinding and many others that are about to be turned to  "Places where the pretty people play - hungry for power", see 2.30 in the video.

Remember this by arwah Usman Awang?

Bukit Dinding and all the surrounding areas were once - before the British came - a tropical rain forest.  They were then sold or bestowed for planting thousands and thousands of acres of rubber.  Then urbanization created new owners, and now these owners are allocating these prime areas for huge new housing developments. 

This view of Bukit Dinding will be obliterated in a couple of decades or maybe earlier. Image taken from Malay Mail 9 Oct 2022.

This fate of Bukit Dinding as envisaged by the developer Nova Pesona.

Nova Pesona  according to ctos .....

....... and Nova Pesona is a subsidiary of  .....

..... IGB (Ipoh Garden Berhad).  A corporate profile of IGB Berhad writes : it is "primarily a property company engaged in all aspects of the property industry.  Its core business is in retail, commercial, residential, construction, and hospitality.  The company also has investments in water treatment, information technology and data analytics and education.

IGB Berhad is one of the largest listed property companies in Malaysia with footprints across Asia, Australia, the United States of America and United Kingdom,"

As for Nova Pesona, according to the Malay Mail ( 9 Oct 2022)

From the Malay Mail , 9 Oct 2022. According to the Kuala Lumpur City Plan, large parts of Bukit Dinding have been designated for "housing" as early as 1983. Only the peak of the hill has been designated as a no-development zone.  Nova Pesona .......... owns the largest parcel out of the five parcels carved out and zoned for "housing" there.  All are owned by private developers.

I find it quite mind-boggling how such hills and mountains (let alone lowlands) can be owned by "private developers".  It is like accepting that large parcels of The Great Wall of China or the Cheviot Hills or Yorkshire Moors can now belong to private developers!

But, there's no way that the Chinese and the Brits will allow themselves to be caught or manoeuvred into the same situation as the Semenanjung Malays faced all those years ago.

Hopefully, the campaign for Saving Bukit Dinding will not be regarded as just another Nimby (Not in my Backyard) attempt to preserve the sanctity of their homes at the foothills of Bukit Dinding - although these are certainly under constant threat of soil erosion where they are and any more pressure of "development" by property developers will exacerbate their situation.  These residents are confronting a very powerful property corporation and hopefully DBKL will take a strong stand in choosing stability (for the hills and the homes ) over profit.  

This campaign should be an eye opener, for Malays especially,  that no more of  the Tanah Pusaka - the hills, forests, mountains, sea-shores - shall be "pledged, hocked, pawned, peddled, marketed, mortgaged and auctioned ....... to the highest bidder and their middle men and agents - though all too often we still get shortchanged" (as AsH has said before!)

Despite Merdeka, despite increasing wealth, despite the investment in religious and secular education, Malays have succumbed to corruption, cronyism and nepotism and now as we can see at every election and proceedings in Parliament, they are scratching out each other's eyes for bigger and bigger slices of the  booty in the name of the Rakyat and democracy.

Here's an illuminating blast from the past.

I recall this quote from Punch, 1878. 

I am not hungry, but thank goodness, I am greedy.

Do read:  /https://anaksihamid.blogspot.com/2014/08/a-parting-shot.html

Also the riposte to the comment on the above link : https://anaksihamid.blogspot.com/2014/09/clever-dick-clever-mat-clever-ah-beng.html

For all the residents of Setiawangsa and Wangsa Maju, keep the flag flying.

Two knights in shining armour.

  

A few days ago someone asked why AsH has been silent.  Thank you for asking!  

Well, AsH is still alive but not kicking.   For the past 7/8 weeks the spouse and I have shared a litany of health problems.  Firstly there was the spouse's dengue, which was reasonably remedied despite the discomfort and anxiety.  But that's how the stoic Scotsman views his ailments, even his cancer.  Doesn't believe in crying in his (Kaliber) beer over such details of ill-health - "must not grumble, others suffer worse than us".

As if to test his resilience, we both tested Positive for Covid 19, about a few days later.  The self-quarantine, the daily reports to My Sejahtera and after seven days, the negative test allowed us to heave a sigh of relief.  We celebrated with our favourite Lontong breakfast at  Seri Talam Cat Cafe, Taman Sri Rampai, with Nasi Lemak bungkus for lunch and kuih Tepung Bungkus for elevenses.

But no, there was no happy ending to this dastardly Covid virus, especially for the Belacan Malay wife of the Wild Scotsman.   She'd developed a constant racking dry cough which went on all day and night causing bronchitis and sleepless nights.  This, they say, is part of the Long Covid scenario.   Comforting to know it has a name! The general advice given was plenty of rest and plenty of water.   That didn't work.  I turned to my very capable and competent Traditional (Herbal) Chinese Medicine, Prof. Liu Xiao Hang at Tung Shin Hospital.

I marvel at the skills of Prof Liu in applying his knowledge of thousands of years of traditional Chinese medicine.  What seems to be a simple act of taking your pulse provides him with much of the information for diagnosing your ailment..  Through my haze of endless coughing, weariness and aches I watch him holding my pulse and considering the message it gives him for deciding on the treatment for an "infection" that has baffled the Western medical establishment since Covid began plaguing the planet.  

I watch him thinking hard, looking at his computer at a long, long list in his herbal pharmacy before he decides on what herbs to choose.  He does not prescribe a week's or a fortnight's series of the  same medication.  The first prescription he gives is for three days only.   There are 3 more 5-day prescriptions.   Now it is a 7-day prescription.    Each prescription is totally different from the other, and consists of at least fifteen, sometimes twenty, different herbs.    And each prescription is chosen specifically for the patient according to the state of the patient's health and symptoms on that day.     You could say it is a personal prescription for AsH, according to what Prof Liu can read from her pulse, her eyes, her tongue, and what she says.     It's all too mind-boggling for me to absorb, Long Covid or no Long Covid!!  

But Prof Liu will also utilise what Western medicine can offer: he sent me for an X-Ray because he was worried about the lungs.  Over less than weeks, he sorted out the bronchitis and the cough which meant I can stop having to sleep (when I can get a chance in-between the racking coughs) sitting up.  

Just last week, he started AsH on his prescription to alleviate another feature of Long Covid - the loss of appetite, extreme fatigue and listlessness.  As I left he smiled, patted my shoulder and said, "Do not worry.  You are getting better."  (I know so.  Slowly and surely I can see chinks of light at the end of the tunnel.  Not the the huge bright light of an approaching train!)

A tough old bird like me does not cry.  But I do wish I could override the norms of our Asian Culture and give Prof Liu a humongous hug.

                                                      Professor Liu 

                                                       Thank you ever so much.

Despite a brain that is still foggy and dense (which I know Prof Liu will be clearing up in time), I write this posting to record my deepest appreciation (BUDI YANG TIDAK TERHINGGA) to two men who  have kept me company and  boosted my spirit through these last few months.  There's Prof Liu. 

Next - the other knight in shining armour who took over the reins of minding the house, the cats and the cantankerous (because she's fed-up of being ill) wife .   Other than his allocated (by AsH) tasks of being the Beverage manager, dish-washer, lunch provider, binning-the-rubbish expert and driver; he took over all of Ash's jobs like the laundry and the cooking.  He made sure his crabby wife (who was losing her appetite) ate up what he had so lovingly prepared in the kitchen.  He was rolling out baked beans on toast, chicken carcass stew - our favourite because of the flavour of the boney carcass, baked beans on toast, macaroni cheese, my mother's recipe for sardines  (Sardin Cap Ayam) cooked in lashings of onions, red and green chilis and lemon juice, grilled chili cheese-on-toast, baked beans on toast, corned beef fried with cabbage, red and green chillies, loads of onions served with mash and hot rice ...very irresistible, and digging deep into the freezer for my cache of home-made soups, frozen apple pie, frozen banana cake and Dalcha and ...... baked beans on toast. But there was the evening when I thought I had better stop feeling sorry for myself and AsH decided to fry chunky chips (not the flimsy French fries) which had been parboiled earlier.  We left no chips unturned - somehow my appetite for chips was left intact.    A week later, we decided to indulge ourselves and splurged on Students' Union staple food - chips, eggs, fried tomatoes and baked beans.  Methinks that was a necessary complement to Prof Liu's herbs.

This year,  he is officially an octogenarian and AsH is just 2 years behind him.    What follows next me duck, is to thank you for looking after me, especially all that driving through KL's horrible traffic to get to Tung Shin - sometimes up to 3 times a week,  but especially for travelling and sharing that "less travelled road" (Robert Frost's phrase) with me since the 1980s.

In the beginning : there were two nerds.

Two sweet (?!) 13 year-olds from Singapore and New Zealand.

We were as different as chalk and cheese or more aptly, as nasi lemak and fish 'n' chips.

These two dishes kept them together.

The most unlikely couple are we!  Being the parsimonious Scot and the prudent quarter-Chinese, quarter-Bawean, quarter-Minang, quarter-Melayu jati Malay, they realized that two can live as cheaply as one.  They decided to set up house and built an erratic, eccentric, adventurous and bewilderingly happy life together -  as Darby and Joan and like two peas in a pod.

We were both brought up in families that had one thing in common.  Our respective parents were not afraid of pulling up stakes, crossing borders and oceans (in the case of Iain's family) to forge a different life for their families in places far away from their familiar homes.  The two of us could not deny what was in our blood.  Before we got hitched, we sought and experienced "hidup berdagang di negri orang" or in today's parlance, as foreign workers.  In the 1960s he went to Persekutuan Tanah Melayu (as recorded in his green Identity card) to teach in UM and I ventured into Brunei to teach at Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Teachers Training College. during the late 1970s.

We were as snug as two bugs in a rug in our little abode at Oxford Avenue, Leicester.

He "escaped" from decades of a mind-sapping academic career at University in the late 1980s and began a new life growing our vegetables in his allotment, drawing his illustrated book  Fatimah's Kampung and fossicking for books in the second-hand and charity shops with his wife tagging along quite happily in this alien (for a Singaporean) past-time.  He gave her free rein to do whatever she fancied, like wandering around in Leicester's charity shops, second hand-book shops on her own, delving into the fascinating world of part-time employment in factories, a plant nursery, Leicester Royal Infirmary and making new friends among her working class mates.  Oh, she also enjoyed cooking and sewing.  These were all the things she wanted to do after nearly 2 decades of earning her crust as a teacher.  I have had enough of teaching, teachers and bureaucrats in a profession which I think was losing its main objectives of teaching and guiding the young. 

But most of all, we enjoyed some great walkabouts - not as typical tourists but as students trying to learn from and of other cultures. 

There were also other nooks and crannies of the world like in Sri Lanka, South Africa, Canada, USA, France, Italy, and of course East and West Malaysia and New Zealand.

But we learned a lot from visiting India, four times for the spouse and twice for me.

INDIA - Pitha Street in Bombay (now Mumbai) scrupulously described and illustrated in Iain's detailed drawing, 1982.

But nearer home, we entered London only for the purpose of supporting causes close to our hearts that still matter to us today.  We walked for Palestine, for the two Intifada and Bosnia.  We also marched twice against the war in Iraq and  against President Bush's state visit to UK at the height of the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Top - For Bosnia (1992-1995) . Centre - with our own home-made poster, November 2003.  Bottom - What we think of Bliar's corporate event in KL - a business congress, 24 April 2010.

But our happiest walkabouts were in Northumberland - the ones we shared with Peggy, a good friend and guide,  a loving, lovely and adventurous  Aunt/Aunt-in-law.  She was that way too with our friends (local) and my former students and relatives from Singapore.  She was always so welcoming, a warm  and generous hostess.  She often gives her departing guests presents of her home-made jam.  Bless you dear Peggy.

Whitby, Boxing Day 1987.  Two of my former students came along on that Chistmas holiday, Yuwrajh (in picture) and Rojiah who took the picture.

The biggest wandering of all for us was the semi-move to Kuala Lumpur in 2007.

The Big Move - 2007

The main reasons for the move were to be nearer to our families in Malaysia and New Zealand.  But it was heart-rending to part with dear friends and Peggy.  She passed away at the age of 83 but we were there to be with her towards the end and to see to her last journey to be with all her beloved dogs.  

Living in KL was a bag of mixed blessings.  Some were painful for it removed a lot of scales from our eyes.  But we are mostly thankful, for here in Kuala Lumpur we could stretch our thoughts and writing and it also gave us the best health care (at Tung Shin) - care that we could never receive in Leicester.

However I believe in searching for the good things that life can offer.

Seek and you shall find.  Amongst other things, we discovered this at Sri Rampai, close to where we live.

Our 'canal' walk at Sri Rampai.  On the left is the canal full to the brim after a heavy downpour and on the right, the trickle of water during a hot spell.

However, this is the most beautiful sight I've ever seen - and I discovered it in Malaysia!

Burung Tempua (weaver bird), arrowed, and it's incredible nest.  We are so privileged.  It upsets me that that there are crass-hearted people who take/steal their nests (and eggs and babies) to sell to vain customers as decorative items in their gardens.  I shall not reveal where we saw that bird and her lovely nest.  No, it is nowhere near Sri Rampai or Setiawangsa.

But, we do miss our kampungs where we came from. 

(Top) - Iain's Kampung, Victoria Park in late summer/autumn.  (Bottom) - My kampung house, 691 Pasir Panjang Road, Singapore,  which had been completely expunged and blitzed by the winds of progress and development 

Oh what it was like to be young and happy-go-lucky.

Playing elderly in Liverpool, 1989/1990

Truly and really elderly in 2020.

To soothe the hardened arteries, here is this little dissertation from a 50p tea towel.

Indeed we are a "hardy bunch", despite dengue and Covid and whatever life throws at us: including the kitchen sink.

Finally, thank you love, for "watching over me".  InsyaAllah we shall carry on trudging, enjoying and making good use of our time on that "less travelled"  road together.

From your soppy, sentimental, sweet ole tart ... aww shucks .........

                              =============================================

Taraa to all me ducks out there.

Maungakotukutuku, NZ 2012.  (photograph taken by Lely)

FALLUJAH - 2007 : AnaksiHamid remembering a previous vicious war on and in the Middle East

 I was clearing a stack of old articles and drafts of our writing about a month ago ......

Seen in the square is just about a quarter of the total accumulation.

.........  when I picked up "Iraq Uncovered" in the New Statesmen of 5 November 2007.  One of us must have set it aside for further reading and reference.  We subscribed to the NS for a couple of years but stopped when we had to spend more and more time in Kuala Lumpur after 2007.

I leafed through it and with so much wall-to-wall coverage of the Russo-Ukraine War in the print and electronic media, I thought it might be interesting to compare the way the media, and the world for that matter treat another bloody war, but this time in the heartland of Europe - the land of blondes and  blue-eyes - after a series of wars against the darker-skinned "towel-heads ", and extremists, fanatics and jihadists of the Middle East.

This article covers the war in Fallujah, after Saddam Hussein had been defeated.

The names given to these wars in the Middle East - wars between Whisky Charlie Whisky or White Christian West and Delta Mike Tango or Dark Muslim Terrorists (I am resorting to the NATO Phonetic Alphabet, see key at end of posting )  never fail to amuse me.  Names such as Operation Phantom Fury and Operation Vigilant Resolve  sound  like a crusading and evangelistic clarion call - the stuff of Gothic comics and books!  But I digress.

The copy of the article in the New Statesmen (5 November 2007) was :

The Report consisted of a series of photographs and captions by Ashley Gilbertson,  an article by Dahr Jamail and another by Brian Cathcart.

 

See : http://www.ashleygilbertson.com/whiskey-tango-foxtrot

See : https://www.newstatesman.com/author/brian-cathcart

Here's an overview of pages 29 - 36 of the NS Report.

Page 29 - 30

Page 31 - 32

Page 33 - 34

Page 35 - 36

Let's take a closer look

1. What did you do in the War, Daddy?

      

This was a campaign during the First World War to emotionally blackmail men into conscription for the War which had been described as a war where lions were led by donkeys.

This meme was used in  the 1966 comedy "Daddy, what did you do in the war?". Often it serves as a ploy to make fun of men who can't  refrain from  recalling and sometimes re-inventing their war experiences to their sometimes bored and long-suffering audience.

But, I cannot resist this either; using this same caption to American, British and their Allies' participation in the war in Fallujah, as revealed in these photos by Ashley Gilbertson.

What did you do in the war, Daddy/Mummy?  By the way, how do you say 'suntan' in Polish?  (Above photo and caption by Ashley Gilbertson)

What did you do in the war, Daddy?  I watched a recruitment campaign for the Klu Klux Klan.  Now buzz off and practise your hangman's knot.  (Above photo and caption by Ashley Gilbertson)

What did you do in the war, Daddy?  I'm trying to get him to say, "Please don't kill me" with sugar on it.  Daddy, what is Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot?  Go and practise your shooting with grand-dad!  (Above photo and caption by Ashley Gilbertson)

What did you do in the war, Daddy?  I was teaching TEFL or Teaching English as a Foreign Language.  By the way how are you getting on in your Spanish class?   (Above photo and caption by Ashley Gilbertson)

2.  Cultural Exchange between the United States of America and Iraq, post Saddam Hussein.

Welcome to Iraq, Yankee Brother!  (Above photo and caption by Ashley Gilbertson)

The Disneyfication and Anglification/Winnification/Poohification of Ramadan.   When will we imitate this for Ramadan in Malaysia?  As it is we are already going crackers over Firecrackers and fired up by Fireworks during Ramadan and Hari Raya!!!  (Above photo and caption by Ashley Gilbertson)

The above photographs are from Whiskey Tango Foxtrot : a Photographer's Chronicle of the Iraq War published by the University of Chicago Press.

3. What I saw in Fallujah by Dahr Jamail, a journalist not embedded with the US Army.

Read https://www.newstatesman.com/long-reads/2007/11/iraq-fallujah-city-military

Here's the last page of Dahr Jamail's Report. 

 

Here's a quote by Dahr Jamail

"The story of the many oppressed peoples of the world is rarely recorded by the few who oppress.  We are taught that the truth is objective fact as written down by conquerors " -Dahr Jamail.

Has the standard of journalism and the nature of the truth changed at all?    Fast forward from 2007 to the reports on the Ukraine war of 2022.

Speaking as a non-white and a Muslim, I ask myself:  "If the media coverage of Ukraine is how White/Christian Culture deal with their Tribal/Ideological Wars, what hope is there for us "Others" to expect a fair deal?     And anyway, let's be realistic, why should they report any differently? "

Let's just remember:

There are many victims of war.  But some get a better script. 

But here's a powerful film,  "Fallujah, The Hidden Massacre" by Sigfrido Ranucci qnd Maurizio Torrealta (8 November 2005) .

See : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgSmsMIUZ60

This video is age-restricted.  You must sign in to confirm your age. No, you do not have to submit your birth certificate - just an email address and BOOM they get all your details.  The world is indeed getting smaller - in more (unacceptable) ways than one - despite Louis Armstrong's " What a wonderful world".

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Appendix : The NATO Phonetic Alphabet

Whiskey Charlie Whiskey = White Christian West.  (AsH's version)

Delta Mike Tango = Dark Muslim Terrorists.  (AsH's version)

You can have a great time devising your own secret language.

As for Whiskey Tango Foxtrot : here is the original (military) meaning.

The above image is taken from - https://www.acronymfinder.com/Military-and-Government/WTF.html

But ....... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot  can also mean different things to different people!

But old ladies like me cannot divulge any of them.😈 

The young will have to do their own homework.😁