Belacan

Migrant stories of yore from Malaysia by Farouk Gulsara

Ah Soh with Nand Lal, Saraswati’s son.
(Photo taken circa the early 2000s).
Courtesy: Farouk Gulsara

https://borderlessjournal.com/2023/08/14/belacan/

“There she goes again,” thought Saraswati as she cut vegetables she had never seen in her native country. “Here goes Ah Soh cooking her stinky dish again.”

Saraswati, Ah Soh and the rest of the pack are people commonly called fresh off the boat. They hail from various parts of China and India.

The loud beating of a metal ladle against a frying pan, accompanied by the shrilling Chinese opera over the radio and her shrieking at her children, need no guessing whose kitchen ‘aroma’ is coming from. Everyone knows Ah Soh is frying belacan, a fermented Malay shrimp paste.

https://borderlessjournal.com/2023/08/14/belacan/?

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

Laundromats, Laundering and World Cup!

I used to be fascinated with the term 'money laundering'. At face value, it looked simple enough - to cleanse money obtained via unsavoury means and to put them in circulation whilst giving them a legitimate source of origin. Was it a coincidence that Al Capone used a laundromat to store and 'cleanse' his ill-gotten gains during Prohibition? 

As the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup is in progress, another word frequently mentioned is 'sports washing'. Traditionally sports have been utilised to cement friendships between nations. It has also been used to spur nationalism among its own citizens. For years despotic regimes whitewash their sins with the glamour of sports. During the 1936 Olympics, Hitler tried to paint a new image of a rejuvenated Germany after the humiliating defeat in the trench War and to prove his supremacist Aryan race theory. Sadly, Jesse Owen's achievement simply threw dirt on Hitler's face. Then it was the Argentinan junta who tried to whitewash their political witch hunts and extra judicial killings by organising the 1978 FIFA World Cup. For a moment, the world thought the world of Argentina had risen from ashes. 

Is Qatar following in the footsteps of the above?

From the word get-go, Qatar has been hogging the headlines for all the wrong reasons. True, the media giant was established with free-flowing Arab petrodollars to paint a more accurate picture of the Arabic and Islamic world; no paint brushing can hide the ugly truth. How it won the bid to host the pinnacle of the world's favourite sport is suspect. How the hell did the FIFA Executive representatives feel that Qatar, with its desert heat and a summer temperature of 50 degrees C was a better choice than Australia and the United States? 

Even before the coin toss or kick-off, the death toll and abuse of its migrant workers had hit the ceiling. The narration of non-payment of wages and non-compensation for injuries sustained during its many infrastructure constructions is common knowledge.

Now that the game has commenced, more and more of their shenanigans have come to light. The Wahhabi-infused Qatari royalty has decided to showcase how a halal football tournament should be carried out. Revellers who flew in to join the merriment of their winning teams in style had to contend with non-alcoholic beverages. They are also strictly told not to display their sexual preferences on their sleeves.

Migrant worker death toll at 1,400

So when someone told me that he was excited that the first two preliminary matches revealed unexpected results. Saudi Arabia, which had a 251 to 1 odds of beating Argentina, did precisely that. And who is the right kind would have thought the minion Japanese who have ousted the four-time world Cup winners Germany? The bookies would have thought so, too, since they would ensure the best returns. Nothing is surprising anymore in this money-raged world of moolah and how businesses control every aspect of our lives. 

In the organisers' zeal to showcase how an Islamic country has a 'secular' event, they decided to use the occasion to proselyte fans. Who can be the best evangelist with an incredible track record to prove this than the fugitive Dr Zakir Naik? He had been specially flown in for the occasion from Malaysia.

Interestingly, Qatar insists that Dr Naik is not on the invitees' list.

Is the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar's way of sport washing its world image as the premier sponsor of terror? Do they expect the world to forget all about the state-sponsored madrasahs and ulamas after organising a memorable display of world-class football? Villains become valiant defenders of truth?

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

Masala in banana leaf restaurant?

Velayutham from Pudukkothai

It looks like every Malaysian leader who claims to represent the Indian community in the country also wants to bend over backwards to represent Indian migrant workers. Ever since a migrant Indian worker who escaped his abusive employer in Kuala Lumpur to showcase his sufferings on a Tamil Nadu talk show, every leader here, the ruling as well as on the opposition seems to be jumping up and down like an excited kindergarten child wanting to have the last say on the issue. To summarise the point at hand, a 40 years old carpenter from Tamil Nadu came into Malaysia, through an agent, with a tourist visa to work. His agent's arrangement was that he would be placed to commensurate his carpentering experience and that his tourist visa would be converted to a working visa in time.

Upon arrival, he found himself having his passport confiscated, sent to be enslaved in a banana-leaf restaurant from 5am to 11pm every day. His wages were withheld, exposed to verbal abuses, be witness to the immolation of a fellow worker, beatings and sexual abuses of other workers. Eventually, he made a dash out, walk almost 300km to another state, begged to survive, did odd jobs and finally made it back home with the help of a Malaysian NGO. He finally decided to give a 'no holds barred' interview about his escape from terror with a private TV in Chennai. 

Almost immediately after that interview, the Human Resources Minister, the enforcement agencies and the employers all sprang into action to determine what actually happened. Investigations are ongoing. The bottom line is that many corners have been cut in his employment. And the whole fiasco has given the nation a bad name.

The employers have come out to clear the air. They give a totally different account of what actually transpired, backed with supporting evidence. Many procedural shortcuts were done on compassionate grounds. They asserted that workers were supplied by an agent, and the employee had mishandled petty cash. They insist that any criminal act was amongst the workers and had nothing to do with them. 

We, the viewers, are clearly left baffled, confused about what actually happened. Obviously, one side is bending the truth or simply lying. 

No one believes in anything anymore. We are all desensitised with the violence. So what if the worker is torched? We have seen worse things done by housewives with children upon their helpless domestic help. And we have witnessed mafia-like employers torturing their workers. Let us not forget the shenanigans of some disgruntled employees expressing their resentment in murderous ways. Hence, anything may be possible. 

In this post-truth world where emotions and pre-conceived notions about something prevail over objective truth, media and access to expression just make the situation murkier than it already is. Even the juries assigned to give an unbiased decision on the final say will find it an uphill battle. Information seeps through the tiniest crack.

Video link-up: Host Lakshmy Ramakrishnan discusses Velayutham's complaint with Malaysia's Human Resource Minister in the talk show 'Nerkonda Paarvai'. Some netizens are up in arms with Minister's instantaneous response in this case. They allege that the Ministry had remained mum in many other issues involving its own citizens. Others suggest that the employers may have strong political links.

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

It is the message

Silence (Nishabdham, Tamil; 2020)

This film was initially meant to be a silent movie, one without dialogues. It would have probably done better. The dialogue was a killjoy and laughable. A significant proportion of conversation of the film was in English, and that is the one that looks so fake, especially the lines written for Hollywood actor Michael Madson. 

It starts off as a paranormal tale but later goes on to give a serial killer angle to the final story. It is predictable with many glaring loopholes in the narration. The cast comprises an ensemble of a few Indian actors (R Madhavan, Anushka Shetty and a few young actresses) and many amateurs. 

Forget the story. What fascinated me about this film is how Indians in this story blended into American society. Filmed amidst the lush landscape around the outskirts of Seattle, Washington, we see how the characters mingled seamlessly partaking in what is considered the culture of the local populace. They indulge in classical music (the main character is a cellist), art, (the other character is a mute painter) and appreciate all the things people in their newfound land hold in high esteems. 

This does hold true to many economic immigrants of the late 20th and 21st century who screwed their own form of governance set up in their respective countries. Their way of life failed them, but they still proclaim to know better. They run down their host, denigrate their behaviour, criticise their way of life but still want to reap maximum benefit from the social safety net that the new country had to offer. They bite the hands that feed them and behead the people who think differently from them.

It appears that these people are doomed for failure wherever they go.

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

Fear makes the world go around?

The answers on Earth are not easy to come by, especially when it comes to questions about the purpose of Life and ways to steer it. Why some people are born with all the options in life, with a silver spoon, in a rose garden, but are too blind to use them for their benefit while others have all the zest to do all the things in life to better themselves without any opportunities.

Assoc Prof Munjed Al Muderi

This topic of discussion came up the other day when the story of an Iraqi doctor, now Assoc. Prof. Munjed Al Muderis, who was given a new lease on life in Australia after running away from his birth country flashed in a newsfeed somewhere. Dr Muderis was an ambitious young doctor in an Iraqi University when the Republican Guard showed up and ordered him to mutilate his patients who happened to be Iraqi soldiers. Refusing to conform, as it was against the Hippocratic Oath, he finally had to make a dash out of the country and eventually ended up in Christmas Islands as just another refugee with another number on his arm amongst the many Mohameds and Alis. Long story short, after enduring the denigration of being just another face in the list of exiles, the host country finally gave the good Professor a break to showcase what he had to offer to mankind.

Iraq's loss is Australia's gain. Or is it? His story is overshadowed by many who have been abusing the system as well. The Australian pioneers or any immigrant of the yesteryears to any country which is now successful had toiled blood, sweat and tears to make hay for their future generation to have what they did not. And sacrifices must have been aplenty - natural calamities, man-made disasters, diseases, freak accident, etcetera. All these were endured in the game of progress and stability.

Amongst the many of so-called refugees are shit-stirrers, who were the masterminds or were instrumental in the collapse of the country that they originated. The visitors had all the chances to make something out of the area that was marked out as a nation for them to prosper and mind their own businesses. But instead, they chose the path of annihilation. What assurances are there that they would not do the same for to their new host? These are difficult questions.

Jay Lakhani - Theoretical physicist and
Speaker on Spiritual Humanism.
Advocates rational thinking into religion,
not blind faith.

On the other end, should we just turn a blind eye to the human sufferings and walk away with our noses stuck up in the air? Can we blame the victims as just undergoing effects of the bad karma as if the fact as we, in the midst of all these are not being 'tested' on our karma chart ratings? Should we be altruistic and embrace everyone in a good spirit, pray Kumbayah and be convinced that love will save the day? Many a time we have seen mouths biting the hands that fed them, slaves slaying their owners and visitors overstaying their welcome but rule over the well-intended hosts to impose their failed ideology.

Should we build fences to keep them away or mend the broken fences that have plagued mankind since antiquity? Is that even possible? It seems that fear is the one that is making the world go around with all its drama, not love. Suspicion, greed, destruction and violence seem to delve Man deep into their thinking faculties to come up with innovations, not brotherly love.

https://www.amnesty.org.au/from-refugee-to-pioneering-surgeon-munjed-al-muderis/

https://asok22.wixsite.com/real-lesson 

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

Putting the seal of God?

It is quite comical that how verses from the same book of the Bible is used on either side of the divide in America on the issue of immigration. Quoting the book of Romans, one side claim that leaders are ordained by God. Hence, their decree is equivalent to God's command on Earth, and the people are dutybound to follow. 

Paradoxically, detractors argue that it is taken out of context. Texts that were preceding and after that verse that were omitted.  The Good Book reminded the followers of the times when the people were themselves slaves in Egypt and how they were ill-treated. Everyone is a sojourner on Earth, just passing through. Words like 'feed your enemies if they are hungry, give them a drink if they are thirsty', 'do not reap to the very edges of your field, leave them for the poor and the foreigner', and 'love your enemy as yourself' may denote that one should for the unfortunate.

But life is not so simple. Scholars have decided that the passages clearly defines foreigners and strangers. Strangers deserve justice and mercy while law-restricted foreigners do not.

That is the danger when one decides to opt to follow scriptures literally and not use the mental faculties to determine what is best is for mankind, taking into consideration the perspectives of time and context. One would resort to cherrypicking and indiscriminative rationalisation by invoking the name of God.

“Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God” (Romans 13:1).

 https://asok22.wixsite.com/real-lesson 

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

The Roost

https://mybukz.tumblr.com/post/175292906152/poem-the-roost-by-farouk-gulsara

Credit: FB group: Rawthers

Penang circa mid-1960 

There was once a time, a few years ago, there was a spate when many of my relatives had given up on their motherland, turned their back on Malaysia and started looking around for greener pastures. I wondered how Mother Malaysia would feel to see one by one, her children, after years of nurturing them, after growing so big and strong, feel compelled to fly away from their roost. Like a proud mother seeing her kids having a mind of their own, she must be immersed in a kind of bitter-sweet feeling.


Like a flight of swallows,
you came all stocks and barrels,
from Swatow,
from Coimbatore,
Looking for a peace of mind,
you scaled the high seas and brine.

You were hungry, I fed your soul,
you had shivers, I showed you warmth.
you were homeless, I gave you home.
you were stateless, I was your hope.

Under the yellow umbrella,
and a piece of cloth,
you had dignity, camaraderie, integrity.
a history, a legacy,
an emblem, an anthem.
The colours to spill your crimson.

Now that you have wings,
you can expand your span,
once an ugly duckling,
majestically now a swan,
I remain your dodo,
Flightless, lifeless, brainless, valueless,
And cared less.

I am not up to your mark
not up to your spark,
no path to walk.
you want to fly,
to reach high up in the sky.
you peacocked to new horizons,
no future, you cite as reasons,
you curse me, you betray me
still, I don't call it treason.

A summer love, a puppy love,
the morning after, the hangover,
a one night stand,
a nightmare to be got over?

I have my desires too,
To progress like the red dot,
And shine like the rising sun too.
Not just a chicken feed to the rot.
I stay regal, guarding,
patient, majestic,
hawking over the nest
providing a haven for the crows and the rest.

-FG-

 https://asok22.wixsite.com/real-lesson 

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

Beware the soft signs!

Credit: Pinterest
Sarawak, 1950. 
A tattooed Orang Ulu nurse and patient.

Have you noticed how so often we are made to realise of our shortcomings? We thought the house was spick and span only to receive a metaphorical smack on the head when it is discovered that the stench was actually culminating the years sweeping the dirt under the carpet and the moisture it accumulated year in year out.

Our colonial masters left us with a community level medical services network that we could be proud of. In the late 50s and all through the 70s, every gravid mother, parturient and neonate in a village was given personalised attention by the members of the medical team. They took great pleasure in caring for them from the cradle to the grave (when the time is ripe, of course).

One of their greatest success stories is the immunisation programme that drastically brought down the incidence of common communicable diseases.

Over time, we have become complacent. Lurking beneath the surface society, amongst the subaltern community, the immigrant population, the unwelcomed sojourners, undocumented unskilled workers and overstayed students who became pregnant by choice or otherwise, are individuals who are not protected against many diseases that the adult Malaysian populations are. Since daily survival is a struggle, ensuring that their newborns are immunised is the least of their priorities. This would dilute the herd immunity and hence put the rest of the citizens at risk of various diseases that we thought we had eradicated in the country. Something to look into!

Nobody's child!

Selfie with the Prime Minister (2017)
Directors: Nor Arlene Tan, Grace Cho

At first I thought it was just a film to showcase the plight of the migrants and the hardship that they had to endure on a daily basis after being swindled by human traffickers and shunned by the Malaysian society at large. Well it is that and much more, but it tries putting it in a light hearted manner. It tells the tale of a selfie crazy migrant worker who goes around taking pictures of himself against the backdrop of the landscape around the country.

As he introduced himself, he made a blooper (or was it is on intention, I wondered!). He introduced himself as Ziaur Rahman from Bangla... er, Myanmar. What kind of person would forget his country of origin. Then it clicked. Ziaur is a Rohinya from Arakhine State whose people are is in great turmoil as we speak.

A bit of history on the origins of the Rohinyas. They occupy the Western part of Burma neighbouring Bengal and they were recruited by the British to fight the Japanese in World War 2. The rest of Burma, (as Myanmar was known then) were with the Japanese fighting the British-led Indian Army. This demarcation continued as their allegiance to their Motherland was always questioned due to their religious belief and their ignorance(?refusal) in Myanmarese language. With lack of economic opportunities, poverty and the religious insurgence as many jihadists flock that area to sacrifice in the name of religion, this rich area has become something akin to war zone. Humanity has died, Savagery is the order of the day as carnage and human sacrifice spreads like wild fire.

Refugees who manage to escape persecution land in the hands of human traffickers. Like commodities, they change hand and finally land in Malaysia. Also amongst these refugees are many who had borrowed from moneylenders hoping for a good life in Malaysia just to realise that they had been taken for a ride.

Together, these economic migrants, play a cat-and-mouse game with the authorities and gets played out by errand employers of their hard-earned salaries. As Malaysia is not a signatory of UN convention on Refugees, the migrant workers cannot move freely as legal refugees, They all live under the radar, unseen, unheard but still play an important role to do the duties deemed too dirty, degrading and dangerous for an average Malaysian.

This documentary tells of Ziaur's struggles making ends meet, his quest to solicit donation for his cataract surgery, his activism work which involves writing to dignitaries the world over on the helpless state of Rohinyas in Myanmar and outside as well as indulging in his favourite pastime, taking selfie and being active in social media. The highlight of the film is when he attends PM Najib's Hari Raya open house in Putrajaya to take a selfie with him. To top the icing on his cake, he also took a selfie with the police officer on duty at that occasion. He thought it was ironic considering the number of times he and his friends were harassed by the them for bribes. In the spirit of festivities, everybody had their guard down and nobody was stressing anybody out!

Till date, Rohinyas remain unwanted. Their birth country is refusing them. Their neighbours do not want them. Countries and organisations like OIC who are vocal about their sufferings under the umbrella of the common religion look the other way when it comes to the crux of the matter.

The blurring of who is right and who is wrong cannot be overstated. Brutality from all involved parties is obvious. The disturbances have gone on for so long that none of combating sides (the Rohinyas, the Myanmarese military or the militant Buddhist monks) remember who drew first blood. Situation becomes worse when jihadists with the same ideologies as ISIS and Al-Queda rear their ugly heads in the mayhem.

Only when you get on to the other side!

Bhaji on the Beach (1994)
Director: Gurinder Chada

It is quite clear. Man is always restless. He is never happy with anything. He is always looking for greener pastures. It may be his inborn desire to spread his wings, to improve himself and subsequently propel mankind to higher of achievement. But, what is this achievement? Does progress technological advancement, ease of living or carrying out the traditions set out by our fathers and creating a peaceful world where everyone can hold hands together, look at each other and say 'Joy to the world, joy boys and girls, joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea and the joy to you and me!'?

We seem to uproot from their native country, leave stock and barrel and explore greener pastures with a chest full of hope that their newfound motherland would be a land of milk and money. Surprise, surprise. True, some of the things that the new country has to offer are worlds apart with what they grew up. But, their sojourn also marks the evolution of new problems. They are particularly disturbed with the embracement of their offspring of the cultures of their new masters. The elders are not particularly happy with this development as they perceive their age-old traditions to be far superior. That is where the friction starts!

In essence, this is the issue the filmmaker is trying to explore in this light comedy. A kind of self-appointed feminist social worker organises a day trip to the beach to a group of Punjabi British ladies, ranging from teenage girls, a soon to be a medical student, a young mother, a middle-aged lady all through to a senior citizen. Each come aboard with a psychological baggage. The journey does not solve any of their problems but gives them a clearer mind to face the challenges of their lives.

The grass is always greener on the neighbours' lawns because they are so full of manure. Move over to their abode to realise the stench, the flies and the 'booby traps' when you walk on the grass! That does not mean we should be perpetually contented with we have and grateful that things could worse or should we build our nationalistic spirit and challenge the status quo or the inertia in our own backyard? Points to ponder.

We always strive higher!

Bread and Roses (2000)
Director: Ken Loach

Staying true to what Nietzsche was saying about masters, slaves and master morality, the economic migrants put their lives at stake to get to be like their masters. They (the migrants) yearn to be like the masters; speaking their language, dressing like them and abandoning their age-old traditions. Whatever the masters did was good and their own self-depreciating. They achieve what they want, but they are still not happy. They have a kind of self-realisation. They realise that their back-breaking endeavours are only to make the masters' life comfortable at the expense of their (slave's) health and life. They rebel, demanding appropriate recognition and remunerations. That is when the boat starts to rock.

The masters do not like all these melodramas. After all, there are many other newcomers ever-ready to fit into the workers' shoes. The master's continuity of comfort and high-brow lifestyle is of supreme importance. Hence starts the mutiny.

This Ken Loach's flick on the social struggle of the little people brings to light the difficulties endured by the immigrant population. They persevere through struggles of illicitly entering the country, leaving their lives at the hands of ruthless smugglers, human traffickers, middlemen, corrupt border men, local agents and the system that is keen to shoo and step them over when the situation warrants.

The people they left behind in their countries look at them as a beacon of hope. Quickly, even before the immigrant gets their footing in their new place of sojourn, the requests for money keep on rolling. Feeling responsible or not to disappoint the people back home, they comply. They engage in many activities, what come may, legal or otherwise, morally right or not, all for the little comfort for themselves and their loved ones back home.

The migrants are in the spring of their youth. There is also a need for them of to fulfil their own obligations, to desire to satisfy their carnal needs and continuity of their progeny.

'Bread and Roses' is a leftist movie that tends to look at the workers' plight, especially the immigrant type. They are the one that the modern city is totally dependable on for its functionality but remain invisible to its inhabitants. They are the discards of society as was described by Goebbel's propaganda films, the vermin of the city. In this offering, immigrants of different ethnicities come together to rebel against their unscrupulous employers for unfair wages and their inhumane treatment in handling of their day to day needs. The janitors of a company stage a protest named 'Justice for Janitors' and their catchphrase is 'We want bread but we want roses too!'. This phrase is a verse from a 1911 poem which was used in a workers' strike by immigrant women back in 1912.

Sure, the employers took them out from the pit of hopelessness in the basket-case countries which the immigrants failed to develop. They gave them dignity, improvement of living standards to them and their loved ones. They gave them a new lease of life to their otherwise web of hopelessness. They would be rotting in hell if not by the so-called 'unscrupulous' employers. Now that they are big and strong and know the dealings of the world, they bite the hands that feed them, so say the employers.

But that is, after all, what human character is all about. It is human nature to always feel discontented. We always strive to attain another notch higher; scale a higher mountain, sail further to a deeper ocean and reach a more challenging frontier. That must be the innate survival skill that we must have acquired from generations before us which helped us to weather all challenges that lay ahead in life.


"Bread and Roses" is a political slogan as well as the name of an associated poem and song. It originated from a speech given by Rose Schneiderman; a line in that speech ("The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too." inspired the title of the poem Bread and Roses by James Oppenheim. The poem was first published in The American Magazine in December 1911, with the attribution line "'Bread for all, and Roses, too'—a slogan of the women in the West."The poem has been translated into other languages and has been set to music by at least three composers. Wikipedia.

Not just another tale to tell

There must be something wrong with our top down approach in teaching History to our young ones. And what do you expect from the politicians who always keep changing the origin and the course of history as they fancy to befit their bedevilled agenda?

The real history of a civilisation and a nation should be rightly learnt from a ground-up manner. The real story lies hidden amongst the many untold narrations of the little people, the fabric who make the nation, not the generals and warlords who look at events of the day through their rose tinted glasses who would want themselves to be portrayed in Annals of times as heroes.

Many such stories of the ordinary people remain untold in this country. Their viewpoints had never been seen as sexy or newsworthy. After all, they are just economic migrants in pursuit of survival from a land already in ruins. What do they know? They are sometimes viewed by the earlier dwellers as just snatchers of the country's wealth to send it back to their land of origin. They never had it good in any way. If the push factor from their Motherland was not bad enough, the situation in Malaya was no bed of roses either. If there they suffered from deprivations and diseases arising thereof, here they had to battle with the excesses, the torrential monsoon rain, the scorching heat and its illnesses as well - malaria and filariasis. And the war that rocked the whole world. If that was not enough, the scourge of the communist and political interplay of the superpowers were to follow.

Prof VGK Dass, putting aside his academic hat to indulge in a biography-novel writing, did his part by paying homage to this deceased mother. He relives his mother 's escapades through the turbulent years of old pre-WW2 Malaya all through to her demise. He inked her struggles of bringing up her seven children as a young widow in a foreign country with her strong determination as her weapon, her trust in God as her shield and her never-say-die attitude as her ammunition to bring her family to steady ground. Along the way, she contributed her share to nation building. The biography tells her interactions with her new comrades of various ethnicities and her adjustments to the new country. 

The book also narrates of this matriarchal's travels, her friends, her relatives and her joy with her kids and grandchildren.

"Gowri' is a tribute by the eldest son to his mother who was widowed at 42 and he lost his father at 17, who co-parented his six other siblings.

To order  http://www.gowribiography.com/buy/

P.S. Another struggle yet to be told (http://asokan63.blogspot.my/2014/01/eulogy.html)

The picture and the thousand words

Aylan Kurdi at Bodrum Beach

It was just a picture to don the morning papers to say what reporters do best. Some of their photographs become international icons of a bygone era. Every living soul would be instantly aware of the American atrocity in Vietnam at one look of the picture of napalm struck confused girl running aimlessly with burnt clothes. This picture the dead toddler by the Turkish beach may one day be the reminder of the danger of stirring of a hornet in the highly volatile region of Middle East. For the perpetrators, the US, it is a European problem, not theirs. No rubber dinghies would traverse the Atlantic to reach their shores.

You think a picture is just a picture, but you would be amazed at the dynamics and rhetoric that goes through before and after it goes to print. A dead body polluting the beach of a bourgeois beach resort.

The child has no life. Death has engulfed him, but the picture is subtle enough not to appear gory. The violence and uncertainties that he had seen in his mind, on he can tell. He does not look death, as though just sleeping on his belly in slumberland. All dressed up with new shoes, hoping to start life anew in a faraway land away from hatred and killing but what he found was blissful sleep in after-life. They say God's justice must and will prevail on Earth as He wanted. Is this the result He wants? Dead at an age when life is just supposed to begin?

For the record, the head of the family tried to migrate to Canada, but it was rejected. So, he, with his wife and two young sons decided to flee the war-torn zone of Syria, with the help of a rubber dinghy manned by flight-by-night private boatsman, to make it to the nearest gateway to Europe, Turkey. Just 10 minutes into the journey, the seas turned rough. The boatsman jumped ship as it capsized. The father helplessly tried to rescue his family but in vain as he saw his whole family drown right in front of his eyes!

Critiques called it sensationalism of newspapers to up their sales. Scenarios like these are daily occurrences in many parts of the world. Over-exposure may desensitise readers, and the impact and devastation of war could be lost. Pressures for political will to act could be slow in coming.

Others complained of the insensitivity to the grieving parent and wondered if the picture would have made such an impact if the child was not so Caucasian looking but African or Oriental in appearance.

Anyway, the Imperialist are just feeling karma at play. They stoke the quiescent hornets' nest with fire, drain the honey and expect the angry hornets to just go away. The busy hornets, through trials and tribulations, had built a self-sustained equilibrium which worked for them. And it is in a quandary. Where do they go? Away from the fire!

On the Imperialist side, they are debating whether they are refugees, immigrants - political or economic ones. Some refuse to accept refugees of a particular faith, claiming that, from previous experiences, they exhibit holier-than-thou attitude once they are strong. They refuse to blend with society and bite the hand that fed them!

https://asok22.wixsite.com/real-lesson 

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

https://www.facebook.com/groups/riflerangeboy/

Should I stay or should I go?

Migrating to Australia, good meh?
Authors: Ken And Michael Soong.

In the typical conceited Malaysian fashion complacent with his comfort zone and would not lift his finger to help his helpless neighbour, most of my friends who saw the title of the book were quick and forthcoming with their unsolicited advice, went on a with unpunctuated liberal last words. "You don't need read a book to know that, come here, I'll tell you!" they said.

Sure, it is easy to go on a rant on the merits and demerits of migration, the push and pull factors, of political and economic refuge. Sure, our forefathers took the bold step of giving up they had, which is what they never had, as times were bad then. It was a question of whether staying for a saviour to turn up to save the day, to become a statistic or plunge into the pit of uncertainty. Those were different times with different needs. We have come a long way from living to survive to living to prosper.

This book, in my view, gives a balanced view of what a potential migrant should consider before deciding to bade adieu to to this tropical shores.
The Soongs urge their readers to consider a few pitfalls and potential headache areas. Are you willing to able to accept your offspring embracing the Western culture, giving up your ancestral tongue and cultures? Are you willing to be treated like how Malaysians look at their foreign workers? No matter how much can be said, racism is still part and parcel of humankind. When a citizen who is cushy with laid back lifestyle suddenly sees how the competitive immigrants grab all available opportunities, tempers are bound to be stirred. The 'rustbelt' schools with uninitiated students, facilities and fatigued teachers cannot be the reason for Malaysian to forgo everything they have here to experience the piece of the Australian pie. One has to be in the right neighbourhood to enjoy good schools, neighbours and piece of mind. Schoolyard bullying is a rampant problem down under. They go on giving survival tips to potential migrants to blend in to this welfare state system and even succeed in life. Many examples of successful migration stories are laid out.

At the end of the day, we should ask ourselves why do we want to give up everything that we have here and start all anew. If it is for the betterment of our young one, how can they be at peace and pave themselves along the right path when they see their elders go through hell on our daily basis to bring food on the table? Success and good life can be achieved anywhere if we put our mind and soul into it.

Should I stay or should I go - The Clash