RIFLE RANGE BOY

An old friend gave me the honour to partake in a religious function recently. Sitting through the function, I came to realise that the basic tenets of all religions are the same. The common seemingly 'good values' are somewhat universal. At face value, everything appears simple but as time goes on, we soon realise that things become more complicated. A simple statement like 'Thou shall not kill any living being' sound simple enough but not when you ask, "What if that being is potentially harmful, like a Bengal tiger or a lethal Dengue spreading aedes aegypti mosquito?" To these difficult questions, different leaders would give different explanations and rationalisation that appease different target audiences. If the target audiences accept that there could be more than one way to dance the tango, no harm done. The problem arises when each vehemently proclaim that theirs is the only accepted way and others must be reprimanded for not doing the same. Th...

Back in the 90s, the legendary Bill Cosby (of the Cosby show and Hey, Hey, Hey, It’s Fat Albert!) hosted and produced a comedy show involving toddlers and pre teen children. I suppose the politically correct word now would be tweens. It was called “Kids say the most darn things” and did well for a couple of seasons. Kids have posed adult-themed (not the X-rated type) questions (like how are babies born) and children would, with a straight face, answer them with some naïve and quirky replies much to the amusement of the studio audience, making the producers laugh all the way to the bank! In reality, as most of us already know, kids say the meanest things as well, especially to their weaker and smaller mates. Let me tell you about my experience when I was growing up. In RRF, there were kids who used to address me as ‘orh kia’ or ‘kling kia’ – black kid or Indian kid in Hockkien dialect. Malaysians then and now assume that, just because they are dumb, not intelligent enough to le...