RIFLE RANGE BOY

Once We Were There  Bernice Chauly (2017) Yes, we were there. A time of hope and desire to tell the world that we have arrived. We wanted the world to know where Malaysia was located on a map. For the first time, they realised that there was not a void between the land of the pagodas, Thailand and the little chewing gum free city of Singapore. They have heard of the loud mouth premier who walked the talk. We had the Twin Towers and the Commonwealth Games to showcase. It was 1998. Then this happened. A country which advertised itself as a moderate Islamic country with conservative views had people talking openly about nocturnal activities that happened behind closed doors. Unexpectedly, its Deputy PM was arrested like a common criminal and dragged to its kangaroo courts racoon-eyed. Suddenly it was alright for the leaders to discuss sex openly and for its dailies to describe in graphic details about homosexuality and sodomy. Against the familiar landmarks around KL and a d...

Perception of Iran Ch 8. Iran and Aryan Myth David Motadel Enemies of my enemies are friends! Credit: historyisfascinating.com Just before the world went to war for the second time, there was a concerted effort by the ruling power to unite people along the lines of race and history. Hitler and his henchmen were going all out to describe a pure superior Aryan race. They were quick to vilify Jews as the vermin of society with the help of propaganda films. Pretty soon, the nation was hoodwinked to pursue what became a national agenda, anti-Semitism and eventually Holocaust. I was a little annoyed at the sight of a down-and-out politician who, without batting an eyelid ferociously claimed to the world that he is an unapologetic racist and is proud of it, to the thunderous applause of his supporters. What are they thinking or are they thinking at all? Do they not know history? It is intriguing how the Aryan race and its origin had been manipulated by leaders to carry out thei...

Allah, Liberty and Love (2011) Author: Irshad Manji Thanks to the religious authorities of Malaysia, this book received free publicity after the seizure of its Malay translation. This author was almost unknown when the English version was out in the Malaysian bookstores. The moment the Malay version hit the shelf, all hell broke loose. That, in turn, drew many a curious mind to delve into her work. Manji is an unabashed Muslim lesbian who drew many a flak from professors of the religion. She is quite comfortable with her sexual orientation and has no qualms in practising her belief as she sees fit. The purists, however, are up in arms, literally with her as they believe that unconventional sexual practices are condemned to the highest order in the scriptures. As the sole purpose of conjugal relations is procreation, to them, same sex relationships are a no-no. Period. Based on this point alone, all her intelligent arguments are rejected wholesale. Manji is one the preachers ...

Two things that happened recently made my mind go a-wandering, yet again. Credit: SCMP #1. A friend, whom I have not met for some time now, appeared in my life during the course of my career. About twelve years previously, he became a widower after his thirty-something wife succumbed to the menace of the crab. Left to care for three young girls, ranging from ages of eight to twelve, he took it upon himself to be the sole provider of maternal and paternal love, all lumped to one. With his meagre income and a lot of helping hand from his extended family members, he forewent female intimacy and sacrificed simple pleasures of life to make parenting his sole purpose of existence. Fast forward twelve years later, the girls have managed to attain academic excellence. Each of them is pursuing careers by their own merit in local institutions respectively in medicine. Law and accountancy. It seems like poverty and melancholy never dragged them ...

The Founder (2017) Everyone has his passion for something. He has obvious ideas on how he wants to develop his baby to showcase to the world with so much pride and joy. He may be committed to his course and would sacrifice time, effort, sweat and sleep over it. But sadly passion alone is insufficient to take his brain-child to a higher level. Others may not share his madness and may fail to see all the excitement, and the endeavour would just fizzle out as swiftly as the revelation materialised. It takes a kind of something to bring the idea to town. That is where the role of a ruthless loud mouth jack-of-all-trades makes an impact. The type who could promise the moon and the stars and could sell ice to the Inuits. Even though on the surface this kind of practice may be frowned upon, at the end of the day, these kind of ruthless people are the ones who rock the world. They make things happen. They move the world, not the Mr Nice Guys who worry about hurting another and living rig...

Sometimes, you see a photograph which summons a whole storm of emotions inside. Often this is down to a perfectly chosen angle or a shot taken at just the right moment. Sometimes, it’s a shot of a stunning landscape or an awe-inspiring natural phenomenon. But in other cases, it can be something as simple as the chronicling of our everyday lives from all around the world. Some very 'attentive' judges at the European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan A woman quietly observes Johnny Depp’s arrival at a movie premiere A herd of sheep pass through a gate The heavens open. Copenhagen, Denmark My neighbour Totoro This guy dreamed of having two sons. His dreams came true — eventually! Feeding the ’birds’ in Ecuador A tornado in Genoa, Italy So much emotion in just one photo! Life is good A cycling team from Rwanda sees snow for the first time With mom The photographer fell over whe...

Bee Gees with brother Andy Credit: Pinterest Each one of us, when we look back at our lives, whether we have had lived our lives to its fullest, still waiting for that magic something to happen or that the particular moment had just whisked us by, we can still reflect back at our moment back in our life where we were Kings. 1978 must have been an outstanding year indeed for the Brothers Gibb. They practically had a hand in most of the songs that made it to the US Top 100 charts that year. Their Saturday Night Fever soundtrack smashed through the ceiling. Many songs from the track found fame, fortune and accolades. Their song compositions for other singers (Yvonne Ellman, Samantha Sang, Frankie Valli, Andy Gibb) also made it well. For me, 1981 must surely be the turning point of my life. It was the time that I try to develop my physical part of my life to indulge in sports. The sole purpose of my endeavour was to make my school leaving testimonial more illustrious to inclu...

There used to be a time in our childhood when we used to look forward to religious festivities. Besides being a holiday, it was also a time of free food and free pocket money. That was the time when waited with anticipation for our neighbours to call us to their homes for merriment. All that just memories of a distant era. Now, a long holiday with the lure of cheap flights is the time we all look forward to planning our next holiday destination. With the same mindset, my cousin and I zeroed in on Siem Reap, the town closest to ruins of an ancient Hindu which existed about a thousand years ago. It was lost in the annals of time also to be discovered by a Frenchman by accident during his expedition through the Mekong River to catch butterflies! So goes the legend! Nature at its best for a picture perfect postcard They still live under the euphoria that they were the rulers of the world; that their ancestors were the most civilised in the region and that their neighbouring ...

Image Credit: freerepublic.com Is it not funny that people who are the least experienced in a particular subject are loud in their criticisms of the said issue? They hide in the company of the same (nimble)minded and are vociferous in the call for their ideology to be accepted by the main stream. They seek the nod of approval of their herd who by then had been blinded by their rhetorics which seem to make perfect sense to the feeble minds. The flock vehemently uphold their shepherd's pointers without once invoking the faculty of reasoning. At the back of their reptilian brain, they have their doubts, but they find it easier to conjure up to their master. For fear of cognitive dissonance, they give in. Imagine a man of God who vowed to take celibacy as his aim of life advising his assembly on the best way of bringing up children. He may not be the best person to be knowledgeable of the nuances of attending to the needs of a child embroiled in the ever-changing and c...