Can't we all just get along?

It's strange isn't it how your day could be ruined in an instant. What caused the sudden disruption in my euphoria? I had come across a news article about Caroline Criado-Perez who had received rape and death threats on Twitter.

And what on earth could possibly warrant such a reaction? Not that anything could justify such actions; she had campaigned the Bank of England to put Jane Austen on a new bank note.

Sigh..you'd think that in 2013 we'd have progressed as a society but all you have to do is check Youtube comments and you quickly realize we still have a long way to go. People seem to not have any respect or consideration of how remarks can be so destructive. So far the police have arrested a 21 year old man in connection with the Tweets.

Meanwhile, the news in Malaysia hasn't exactly been uneventful these past few weeks. Guns and sedition have gotten most of the papers attention. Several shootings have taken place. One involving a banker who was killed in a parking lot in KL; the other involving Malaysian Crime Watch Task Force chairman R. Sri Sanjeevan whose condition still has not stabilised. Apparently he had a list containing the names of police officers under investigation which would have exposed corrupt cops involved with drug trafficking. Coincidence?

I'm a big fan of Real Time with Bill Maher; he usually has interesting guests and he covers a wide range of subjects. I don't necessarily agree with all of his views but I enjoy watching his show nonetheless. Maybe it's because he's able to speak his mind without fear of arrest. I only mention this because what is considered freedom of speech in one country might be labelled sedition in Malaysia.

Recently a couple, Alvin Tan and Vivian Lee were arrested and they both have been charged with sedition among other things. Before this they both had gained notoriety for blogging about their sex lives and they weren't too shy about it either. Apparently the internet is not just made up of sugar, spice and everything nice. There's also an extra ingredient. Chemical XXX (If you don't get the reference then you unfortunately did not have much of a childhood. Powepuffs 4Eva).

Earlier this month they had uploaded a “seditious” photograph of themselves posing with a pork dish on the eve of the holy fasting month Ramadan and wishing festive greetings. The photograph had the caption “happy breaking fast with Bak Kut Teh, aromatic, tasty and appetizing”.

When he was asked by the Star Online on why he had uploaded the photo Alvin said "No reason. Just a joke, I guess." He also added "I was just curious to see how people will perceive it. It seems not everybody is on the same page as us. It is dark humour. It is just our attempt to see how it will be perceived. It is just trying to be humorous on the matter."

So I guess the joke is on them. When they received a lot of negative comments from the public they did upload an apology onto their Youtube channel. If you do check the video out don't read the comments. It just devolves into hate. Of course posting violent and racist comments is not considered seditious.

Where do I stand on this issue? Did I like his picture? Of course not; it was stupid insensitive and tasteless. But was it seditious? I think they were both just testing the boundaries of our society. And clearly there are people who aren't ready for insensitive jokes.

I recommend a dose of Bill Maher, Ricky Gervais, Joe Rogan and Frankie Boyle to help build up their tolerance. Of course, there are actually some people who would then report them to the police. But the law is the law and in Malaysia “to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Malaysia” is sedition. Among other things. Maybe the law is flawed? (Hopefully that's not seditious). 

 

I just checked the “sedition act” on Wikipedia and apparently “to bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against the administration of justice in Malaysia or in any State” is sedition. So I take it back. The law is just fine as it is. And I would also like to add that the Royal Malaysia Police are doing a fine job. And God Bless Malaysia and it's patriotic people.

You might ask me “Faiz, you clearly approve the arrest of the man who posted the death threats on Twitter, what's the difference here?” The difference is that the man threatened Caroline Criado-Perez. Alvin Tan was telling a joke (admittedly a bad one).

People have the right to behave like assholes but of course just because they have that right doesn't mean they should use it all the time. If being an asshole was a crime then yes he would be guilty of that. And so would a lot of other people. I would be guilty of that too. Especially when I'm driving or when I'm stressed or maybe right now when I'm blogging.

The couple are currently facing three different charges:

a) Section 5 of the Film Censorship Act 2002 for publishing indecent photographs online between July 6 and 7. If found guilty they can be fined not less than RM10,000 or not more than RM50,000 and or imprisoned for not exceeding five years;

b) 298A Penal Code for promoting enmity between different groups of religion or race and doing acts prejudicial to maintaining harmony by publishing an offensive Ramadan greeting which carries a minimum jail term of two years or a maximum of five years; and

c) Section 4(1) (c) of the 1948 Sedition Act for posting seditious material through the offensive greeting which carries fine maximum fine of RM5,000.

After being remanded for eight days in jail the couple have both been released on bail. They both pleaded not guilty to all three charges and their trial is on the 24^th of August.

Of course it doesn't end there. This week Maznah Mohd Yusof a dog trainer was arrested and remanded for two days by the police on the charge of sedition. Did she make a ill advised joke? Nope. THREE years ago she had uploaded a video of her bathing her dogs on Hari Raya (which is the celebration when Ramadan is over) and wishing viewers “Selamat Hari Raya”.

It only became viral this week and as usual some people got offended and went straight to the police and filed a report because the video was considered to be “insulting” to Muslims. The Director General of the Islamic Development Department said the video is unforgivable. He said that it is a deliberate attempt to provoke Muslims by equating dogs with Muslims. It's amazing how people can interpret things. Someone might look at his comments and decided he was an idiot. Just saying..

Maznah has had to defend her actions saying that she never meant to insult Muslims or Islam. She wanted to remind people to celebrate Hari Raya with animals as well as humans. In her message posted on Facebook she asked: “Is this Islamic? To those who called me a dog, I am very happy to be equated with an amazing creature of God. If you don’t know the nature of true dogs, and don’t bother about it, why do you accuse? It is because of Malay Muslims like these that Islam’s good name is tarnished,” she said.

Several Muslim NGO's lodged a police report against Maznah after being “shocked and insulted” to discover the video on their Facebook timeline. “I, who champion for Islam in this Muslim group, feel the individual has committed a grievous insult towards all Muslims in Malaysia” read one police report.

These NGOs claimed to represent the majority of the Malays in the country. That's news to me; for the record they don't represent myself or anyone I know. And to all the people and NGOs who filed a report against Maznah I'd just like to say that “you guys seriously need a better hobby instead of bullying people.”

Nurul Izzah Anwar a opposition lawmaker also voiced her opinion that the arrest was completely unnecessary. She said “I believe it’s high time that we addressed real crime and actual threats — and stop allowing bigots to dictate national agenda.” Now she is someone who represents me and hopefully most Malaysians. Thank You.

Last week I wrote about a Principal of a school who got in trouble over a makeshift canteen. Well, this week he went to the police to lodge a complaint because he had received the death threats. And a politician has called for the mother who went to the press to complain to be charged with sedition. Oy Vey..this is why we can't have nice things. We just end up ruining everything.

This is a pretty long post so I'm going to end with one final piece from the news. So now not only is Big Brother watching you; you're neighbours might be as well. I say this because recently Kuala Lumpur police chief DCP Datuk Mohmad Salleh advised all residents and landlords of condominiums and flats to keep an eye out for their neighbours and tenants.

This is because according to him “In Kuala Lumpur it has become a trend, especially foreigners namely Iranians and Nigerians, to rent condominiums or apartments and turn them into drug processing centres,” he said at a recent press conference.

Why is he asking neighbours to spy on each other and foreigners. Can't the police just ask the NSA for help? After all they're already spying on everyone. And I like the fact he singled our Iranians and Nigerians in his press conference. Not all foreigners are bad; I live next door to a Nigerian prince and everything seems above board.

I don't know much about the law and I don't mean to criticize the police but technically haven't they broken the Sedition Act by specifically mention Nigerians and Iranians? According to the Wikipedia entry on the Malaysian Sedition Act;

Under section 3(1), those acts defined as having a seditious tendency are acts with a tendency:

(e) to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Malaysia

I'm just saying the police need to be a little more careful with what they say. We clearly take sedition very seriously in Malaysia. Sigh..if things keep going on the way they are how long before we have a Ministry of Love and the Thought Police? (If you don't get that reference, then read a book people)

I don't mean to be seditious of course, this is just one man's opinion. I'm a patriot just like every other Malaysian. I'd just like to repeat that the Royal Malaysia Police are doing a fine job. And God Bless Malaysia and it's awesome people. See you next week..hopefully.

Here are some links for ya:

Alvin and Vivian jailed
Muslim dog owners remand is extreme
Police to investigate Hari Raya dog video
Meet Maznah, the muslim dog trainer
Condo tenants watch your neighbours
Caroline Criado Perez receives Twitter threats

Food for thought..

Something happened this week which caused a bit of a furore in the local press. A parent revealed on Facebook that her child and other students were being made to eat in the school's makeshift canteen which was in the shower room. This was bad enough.

What made people upset was that it was implied the canteen had been closed during the fasting month and that the non-muslim students being made to eat in the makeshift canteen were being discriminated.

Which quite understandably led to the public outrage on Facebook and calls for the principal to be suspended. As usual the discussion of race and religion led to a flurry of constructive dialogue between people on Facebook.

Not exactly..this was an internet trolls wet dream come true. It's nice that IRL people seem to get along just fine. If life was based on internet comments it'd be like living through The Purge everyday (don't watch that movie, it's rubbish).

It didn't help matters when the principal released a photo of himself and several other people breaking fast and eating in the shower room. I guess he was trying to show the parents that it wasn't a big deal but the parents weren't having it.

A few days have now passed and the dust has settled and it appears to be just a case of bad judgement on the part of the Principal. Because of the uproar the Deputy Education Minister himself made a visit to the school and told reporters that the issue was not related to race or religion.

According to him “The school initiated the makeshift canteen because of overcrowding” and said that the location chosen was “not ideal”. Which is a bit of an understatement. The canteen is now open again but it's still not over as parents and NGO's are still asking for action to be taken against the principal.

Unfortunately this isn't the first case of a principal being controversial. A few years ago a principal had decided that it would be appropriate to segregate the male and female students in his co-ed school. And then there was the case of a principal who was a bit of a..well..racist.

I think that it's appropriate that we hold principals accountable for their decisions though I personally don't think in this case he was being sinister in his actions. It would have been better if he had discussed the relocation of the canteen with the parents first. And later when the parents had complained he should have apologised for the mistake and taken steps to remedy the situation but that's just me.

Unfortunately, we as Malaysians still have a long way to go when it comes to the matter of race and religious issues. Malaysia is still a work in progress and though dark clouds may occasionally swirl over my head I'm an optimist about the future and the direction we're heading as Malaysians. We may not be "fucking perfect" but at least we're"fucking okay.."

Links:

School segregation

Can we stop ranting about the shower canteen?

Racist Principal signals divided nation

P.S. On a totally unrelated note this week I watched LeFabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain for the first time (with subtitles of course; my French is well..non-existent) and it was the perfect movie. After watching Amélie I couldn't help smiling. I did watch A Good Day To Die Hard later which ruined my day.

So apparently this is a "thing" now..

Dear Japan,

Thank you for all the wonderful things that you have brought me and the World. Here's a quick run-down of things off the top of my head. The Walkman; the Game Boy; Godzilla; Sushi; Doraemon; Playstation; amazing vending machines that offer an interesting array of items; toilets which clean everything for you and of course the invention of True Blood which help to keep the vampires at bay as portrayed by the reality TV show of the same name.

But occasionally certain things pop up that I don't quite understand. Maybe it's a sign of early onset old fogey syndrome. I may be a youthful 25 but in my mind I'm just old-fashioned and stuck-in-the mud.

What's currently baffling me is the trend of eye licking (or Oculolinctus as the quacks like to call it) which has sprouted in Japan. Of course this isn't the first cultural trend from Japan to confound me. First it was the short lived “Ganguro”; girls who took tanning to a whole new extreme and were addicted to hair bleach. Then there were the “bagel heads” but which I now have to disqualify because it was neither a trend or Japanese in origin (blame Canada apparently).

Luckily for me (and this post) Oculolinctus is Japanese in origin (fingers crossed). Apparently it's supposed to be a sign of affection between couples. What happened to flowers or breakfast in bed? What happened to kissing like the French?

Of course I don't mean to single out the Great nation of Japan or its people as the cause of my confusion. There are many things in this world that continue to confuse me, the harlem shake; teletubbies; string theory; shakespeare; cricket and why no one in my family eats the first and last slice of bread. I'm going off topic. Back to eye licking.

Allegedly eye licking became popular after it was featured in a music video. Here's some advice from a somewhat intelligent person “Guess what kids, just because something appears in a music video. It doesn't mean you should do it as well. If your friend jumped off a bridge would you follow him?”. Gawd I sound like my parents.

And it is good advice, however clichéd it may be. Having someone drag their tongue over the surface of your eye may feel great but there are some serious heatlh risks. Here's a list:

• Chlamydia (WTF?!)
• Conjunctivitis
• Corneal abrasion
• Corneal Ulsers
• Blindness

If that list doesn't deter you then have at it. Just remember that Chlamydia Conjunctivitis ain't sexy.

P.S. Last week I wrote on my blog and Tumblr about how watching Kaelyn & Lucy’s youtube channel had affected me. I wasn’t expecting any “likes" so when I checked my Tumblr and found a “like" as well as a reply to my post from Kaelyn and Lucy it came as a bit of a surprise. Needless to say this had made my day : )

Link to last weeks post "A story about love"
Kaelyn and Lucy Youtube page

A Story About Love

Aside from the school run and my constant procrastination my daily routine consists of watching Youtube videos. I ended up lost down the Youtube rabbit hole and started watching the suggested videos.

This led to GirlfriendsTV which led to What Wegan Did Next which led to Rose Ellen Dix before I finally ended up watching my first Kaelyn and Lucy montage video. So who are Kaelyn and Lucy (a.k.a Luclyn)? They're a long distance lesbian couple living in the US and UK respectively and they have been uploading videos about their relationship for the past few years.

I'm currently one of their over 76k subscribers. I don't exactly fit in their viewer demographic (it's mostly teenage girls). For the record I've never had any problems with anyone's personal preferences, you could tell me that you who have an alien mistress and I couldn't care less (Google Simon Parkes)

I would watch bits and pieces of their videos. I didn't really have a reason to spend 30 mins to watch their videos. Then I watched the “March 2013” video and as usual skipped most of it, but it was the last five minutes that really got my attention. It moved me. That made me go back and watch all their previous videos from start to finish.

Suddenly I was getting really emotional. I'm subscribed to a lot of other Youtubers and I've never felt this way watching other youtube couples; Shay Carl,BFvsGF, Rose and Rosie etc.

I like to think of myself as a reserved person. The strange thing was that I started feeling depressed. Maybe it was their situation; two people in love separated but desperately wanting to be with each other. Or their emotional goodbyes at the end of their trips. I'm sure that had a part to play. On a side note I can no longer listen to “For the first time” without thinking of Luclyn. And I felt this way for quite some time.

And it dawned on me that unlike all the other channels where I watched the videos to pass the time and distract myself; Luclyn vids made me reflect on my own life..and I felt alone. And it made me want to find my own “soul mate”.

There's a tumblr dedicated to all the people that Luclyn have managed to help and there are so many moving testimonials. I know that they made me reflect on my own life. Made me long for someone. Want to write this post. And start blogging again. Maybe in some small way its made me into a better person. At least I hope it made me that way. Only time will tell.

I think the biggest way they helped me was to remind me that love is a beautiful thing and that life is so amazing when you find that special person to share love with.

Thank you Kaelyn and Lucy for sharing this part of your lives with the rest of us. And though I've never met either of you and may never will I think that you're both incredible people; you've managed to help people accept who they are and help people accept others for who they are.

Gawd Bless 'Murica!

Links:

Kaelyn and Lucy Youtube page

Kaelyn and Lucy Tumblr
My Ramblings Tumblr 

A Brief Introduction

What's a good way to start? I know. Hello. My name is Faiz.

The year was 2010, a younger, skinnier (well..less fat), less jaded me had gotten this crazy idea that maybe I could start blogging and somehow make a living off my writing. So that hasn't quite happened.

I started the very long titled “Ramblings of a Pipe Dreamer” and the first year was very productive. Forty-two posts on various subjects. The next year didn't go so well. Like the Great Depression there was a sudden slump in my productivity. Just four posts for the whole year. And finally in 2012 I started my final post of the year “First of 2012”. And for just over a year my blog has remained dormant. On a permanent hiatus and completely forgotten like that show “Joey”. What/who is “Joey” you might ask yourself. Exactly..

Something happened recently that made me want to continue writing on my blog again (more on that another time). Unfortunately, not only did I forget the password to my blog but the e-mail address that I registered it under had gotten deleted (thank you hotmail) and the hand phone number to reset my password no longer exists after I lost it (thank you Faiz).

So here is the new and improved and equally long titled “Ramblings of a Beardyman”. This blog is no longer about getting a career. This blog is for me. It's my therapy. Maybe something will come of it. Maybe not. But hopefully it will be a good read. In the movie Contagion there is a quote about blogging.

“Blogging is not writing. It's just graffiti with punctuation”

So here is my graffiti. Maybe you'll enjoy it. Maybe you won't. It's only your own time you're wasting.

Ramblings of a Pipe Dreamer - my old blog. take a look if you want.