Mushroom cloud in peacetime?

Like clockwork, not even dust had settled after the Earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale hit Myanmar; numerous announcements have emerged over the new social media outlets of well-meaning organisations offering services to collect donations for its victims. 

We have had all these so many times before. The earliest of these must surely be the Great Tsunami of Boxing Day 2004, which measured 9.1. The world saw a plethora of bodies going hyperdrive, bending backwards, trying to extract money from the well-meaning but unassumingly naive public. The collection, it seemed, was quite overwhelming. Ten years down the line, a documentary was made about the towns hit by the tsunami. It revealed that only one pledged housing project saw living daylight amongst all the broken promises; that too by the personal effort by an individual, the world-famous singer Ricky Martin.

The same thing happened in Haiti following its devastating 2010 hurricane. The Clinton Foundation jumped in to help its victims and help the island nation get back on its feet. Ten years after the storm, an assessment revealed no sustained improvement to its infrastructure. The only viable projects that seem to have been successfully developed were those that benefited the Foundation and the local cronies.

The latest donation drive to hit the nation is to help the victims of the recent Putra Heights gas pipe explosion. Even though footage coming out of the disaster area is scary, so far, no deaths have been reported; only property damage and bodily injuries have been reported. 

A third-person account provides scant information about the event. Firstly, very few Malaysians knew that we had a methane gas pipe gridline running under or near our houses. We had thought this only happened in Western countries. The line was apparently for industrial purposes. 

As in the case of MH370, the head does not know what the tail is doing. At least, that is the impression I get listening to the official press release of the committee appointed to investigate the disaster. The appointees of the sc-called panel expert to investigate the mishap remain opaque. Their representative does not exude brilliance or confidence that every rock will be turned to reveal the truth. I wonder if the services of academics were called for to get to the root of the explosion. Maybe everyone in power wants the whole fiasco to remain an unsolvable enigma so that none of their shenanigans in cutting corners does not come into the open.   The pressmen at the press meet were no better. Forget investigative journalism; they did not even ask the right questions. Instead of hurling difficult questions at the officious, they squawk random and meaningless questions that a primary student would squeal just to please his teacher.

One netizen pointed out that a leading political party started a donation drive to help the victims. Unfortunately, he also noticed that the given account was that of the political party, not a dedicated account set up for relief.

There are many examples of charity foundation abuse. A charity in the UK started during COVID-19 by the relatives of a 90-something war veteran who wanted to record his progress in recovering from a hip fracture. People were smitten by this nonagenarian, and they donated to his Captain Tom Foundation in droves. Soon, its assets became enormous, so enormous that unnecessary maintenance started showing up in its accounts. The veteran also wrote an autobiography, the proceeds of which went into charity but were taken out for personal use. Long story short, the old man died, The Captain Tom Foundation was investigated, and his daughter Hannah and her husband, who initially helped to establish the charity, were found to have benefitted from its mismanagement and blurring of private and charitable interests. The foundation is now defunct.

A mushroom cloud in peacetime

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Leave more than just footprints!

My wife is on a donation drive. A small Hindu temple in our neighbourhood is on the verge of morphing into something big. Initially starting as zinc shed with a few deities, with ever-increasing congregating believers, its presence came to be felt by the surrounding occupants. They did not mind the occasional minor inconveniences caused by its presence as they thought the divine power that it represents would, in turn, protect them. 

Soon the temple coffers grew bigger, and the pressure to flaunt their presence became necessary. Architects were summoned in, and a grand design was put forth. But then, if only they had a few hundred thousand ringgits more…

That was when the drive started. 

The general public was not so forthcoming to part with their hard-earned moolah. They have had enough of schemes that never got off the ground. And the number of holy men in sheep's clothing is just too numerous to be enumerated. They would like to see money spent on education and social causes. The lay public fails to see how big erections, loads of flowers and metric tonnes of milk in the name of fetting the Gods will improve the community. 

But wait. 

Let us look at the country's history. As time goes on, we can notice the nation's story is written and re-written to trim and prune the actual events to satisfy the majority ethnic group in the country. Slowly, the deeds of the minority are erased and slowly forgotten from the annals of Malaysian history. 

The discovery of Hindu icons in Indian mosques set the records straight of the hidden history behind these monuments. The discovery of Angkor Wat, Borobudur, and the giant Buddhas of Bamiyan tells us about the land's glorious past. Asoka's Pillar is the testimony of a glorious Mauryan Empire that existed long ago.

It is pertinent for all communities to leave their legacy to mark their territory, especially in the modern world. As the majority try to dominate the rest in their rapacious desire to create a New World Order, they try to control the narrative and whitewash the contributions of the rest. These Hindu architectural marvels will seal the presence of Hindu culture in this region.

For those who have a compelling desire to contribute to this course, please submit your donations to:

PERSATUAN PENGANUT SRI DEVI KARUMARIAMMAN

RHB BERHAD ACCOUNT: 21209500071462

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.