Salam Ramadhan

Today is the second day of the fasting month.  I reckon it is not too late to wish fellow Muslims a peaceful and blessed Ramadhan.

I have been neglecting this blog for quite a long while but I have been able to keep myself updated with the latest writings by people on my blog roll through my phone.

I use the headlines to select what I want to read and what I prefer not to read.  It is a form of self-censorship that allows me a few moments of detachment from the horrible outcome of human greed and rapacity.

I have not meant to stop writing, but I am going through a period of life where I don't feel particularly motivated to urge people to do something or even to express myself.

Heh .. even the goings-on in Syria has failed to dislodge me from this serenity of living life in the shroud of self-imposed detachment from the harsh realities that currently is affecting our nation and the Muslim ummah.

I no longer feel strongly about anything, no fears nor worries, not even for my beloved Malaysia.  I do worry for my nephews, but I do believe that their parents can provide them with the means to survive, elsewhere if need be.

I still have lots of questions, though.  That hasn't changed much ...

As for politics, I no longer feel an attachment for a group of people whom I thought would be the defender of the way things are/were in Malaysia because I sincerely think that they have lost it.  Totally.

Some of these people still have this out-moded thinking that, for example, the Malays of Gelang Patah can still be fed with Malay-centric rhetoric while they blatantly plunder the wealth of the state and still expect the Malays of not so kampung Gelang Patah to still elect them come GE14.

Living in Klang Valley has opened my eyes to the reality of how detached these people are from the old ways of the kampung folks whom I love and tried to emulate.

In view of the excesses, stupidity and arrogance of some of these new Umno "leaders"  I can now understand how the large majority of urban Malays can be influenced by the insidious politics of the urban political parties of the opposition and their strange predilection of spouting things that defy logic.

The conduct of some of our "defenders of the faith and way of life" too provides me with an insight on how France became a republic and the aftermath of that revolution.

It is always the helpless who suffers, even to this very day, while the powerful trade barbs and spout rhetorics to incite the masses towards the inevitable conflict, while the privileged and rich continue their plundering, preparing their escape route to safe havens of England, US of A, Australia, and elsewhere.

I can also understand why urban Malaysians spend a large amount of time on online social networks, commenting on inane things, gossiping and spreading gossip, with absolute faith in the truthfulness of their social network friends that they failed to exercise their own god-given mind.

It is entertaining, mindlessly so.

It also provides a sense of false bravado, that we can hide behind a keyboard, typing things that we may not say in polite company, thus desensitising us from the values of polite society that we must maintain in the real world.

We spend an inordinate amount of time on these social networks, whether online or at the local kedai mamak, that we neglect the much needed exercise of our mental capacities though books and academic discourse.

How much non-entertainment reading material do our youth consume in a given month?

How many non-entertainment discourse do our average youngster conduct in a given week?

Don't they realise how never-ending entertainment-based socialising will slowly but surely desensitise us from our moral and cultural values, if not from our religious observations, and affect our ability to discern fact from fiction?

I have been wondering lately, why are some people becoming so self-absorbed that they fail to register, evaluate and reflect the impact of their conduct and words on others?

Why are some people demanding others to respect their wants and needs while they ride roughshod over everyone else's wants and needs?

Why do some demand tolerance and yet refuse to tolerate others?

Why do people forget that for every action there will be an equal and opposite reaction?

It is physics, but it also applies to the human psyche.

Or maybe it was precisely intended to provoke reactions which will escalate into social unrest.

Are we falling into this trap?