Nobody's child, growing wild!

THE ROOST

There was once, many 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 bitter-sweet feeling.

Like a flight of swallows,

you came stocks and barrels,

from Swatow, Coimbatore, Minangkabau,

Looking for peace of mind,piece of pie,

for that,

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,

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,

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,

to shine like the rising sun too.

a tiger, not a chicken to the rot.

I stay regal, guarding,

patient, majestic,

hawking over the nest

providing a haven for the swallow for the summer.

What do Ke Huy Quan and Michelle Yeoh have in common? Besides standing tall and hoisting their Oscars in the recent Academy Award ceremony, both spent a brief time in Malaysia. For the ignoramus, a little Ke Huy Quan appeared as 'Short Round', Indiana Jones' fast-talking sidekick in the 1984 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'. 

Now Ke is all big and strong and appeared in the supporting role in 'Everywhere everything all at once!'.

Michelle Yeoh, as we already know, hails from Ipoh. She wanted to be a ballerina, but an injury prevented her progress. Like most Malaysians of that era (and now, too), many qualified Malaysians who lost out on the New Economic Policy are left with Hobson's choice but to pursue their ambitions outside the country. Malaysia is no place for a ballerina to prosper too. A place in a beauty pageant, sure, as it is forbidden to the majority. So, Hong Kong and Holywood were where Ms Yeah had to be to shine. Now, this country wants to bask in glory for the accolade as if it had everything  to do. Maybe it was the main push factor for millions to explore green pastures and hence, attributed to a massive brain drain.

Ke Huy Quan probably had multiple brushes with death before fame and fortune finally made their much-anticipated appearance. Once, at his birthplace in Vietnam when the family had to split up. The father left with half of the family, and the mother with the other half towards Malaysia, possibly aboard Hai Hong. Defying death again from rough seas and the risk of being shot at by the then Prime Minister, the family reunited in the USA a year later. 

It is not that citizens do not want to contribute to the nation. It is not that they do not want to be part of the nation. Paradoxically, it is the nation that does want intelligent citizens. They do not fit into their social engineering programme. They want obedient subjects who would dance to their drum beats and the fiddle of the ruling party. There is no place for slaves to question their masters! Michelle Yeoh and Quan should thank Malaysia for being inhospitable and help them to push to the limit and explore what they truly are made of.

A clip from 'Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.'

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

I see black dogs everywhere...

Like a line of falling domino tiles, one by one, they all fall. Yet another one fell prey to the black dog. Even the outwardly strong minded ones with barrage of ammunition to shoot you down if you were to cross their paths, go into fetal position like a helpless infant when the final straw of hay broke their back. Like an epitome of patience, like a turtle she went on her duty on earth with diligence without complaining. Then came the challenges, one, another and another and poof she went all jello.

Young and old alike, they seem to be swept by this epidermic.
Coming mostly from humble backgrounds, one would have think that after enduring the uncertainties of life for a square meal and other comforts in life, enduring uncertainties by now would literally be a walk in the park. The general consensus is that one could not buy himself out of all troubles. Crying in a BMW, however, certainly looks less pathetic then crouching over a pavement but then the hopelessness are the same. It just goes on to say that there are somethings that money can buy like crying in comfort albeit the melancholy.

Just like stupidity, everybody around the victim realises the affliction except the affected party. The sooner the party realises her predicament, the sooner remedy can be sought. Failing this, she would continue barking up the wrong tree to find another name for her bad times. Blame it on the rain, stars, sun, planets and everything in between but the space between the ears.

Winston Churchill had a black dog
his name was written on it
It followed him around from town to town
It’d bring him downtook him for a good long ride 
took him for a good look around
Reg Mombassa: Black dog