Where Is The Religious Freedom?

Any country that is progressing economically will definitely have certain salient points that are very necessary for it to advance. They will most probably have hardworking citizens. There would be law and order to ensure peace and harmony among the citizens. The government of the day would have ensured freedom for its people to practice the religion of their choice, to be able to protest if there is injustice. To be able to seek justice through the legal system. An efficient armed forces to protect the land from invaders and so on and so forth.

We in Malaysia have most of it but of late we see the emergence of intolerant attitudes in religious matters. Those in power somehow feel obligated to favour one party over the other when it comes to religion. Take for example the case of R. Subashini whose husband converted to Islam. He is trying to convert the children too. Subashini is trying to fight for her rights in getting a divorce settlement in the civil courts. On March 13, a panel of judges had ordered Subashini to take her case to the Syariah court! She is a Hindu. Why should she go to the Syariah court to look for justice? The Syariah court is for Muslims. It is a religious court.

How could the honourable judges come to such a conclusion? It shows the hidden forces playing behind the scene. Some people are trying to turn this case into one that is against Islam. It is about the religious freedom that is guaranteed under the Federal Constitution. To deny her the right to take her case to the civil courts is to deny justice to all the non-Muslims. That's what it is. The government is trying to fish for votes in the rural areas or it is worried that the opposition party, namely PAS would condemn it as being un-Islamic. We cannot allow the mullahs or ayatollahs to dictate to us about how we should live.

It is very important that the government make the right decision if we want to have peace and harmony in this land. The government must ensure the rights of every citizen regardless of race or religion. Even in Iraq where the majority are muslims, they still kill each other simply because they belong to different groups. Do we really need this type of Taliban mentality here?

The latest news about R. Subashini is she has obtained a temporary injunction from the Court of Appeal to preserve her civil rights pending her appeal to the Federal Court. I sincerely hope our legal system allows her to fight for her matrimonial rights in a civil court, whatever the outcome.

Water Woes

If the electricity supply is cut off, all you have to do is light up a few candles and voila, you have light. But when the water supply is cut off, that is a different kettle of fish.

We have been having water problems for a few days now in our fair city. Today is the pits. Our tap is bone dry. The information I got was the operator of the water treatment plant was having trouble with the pumps. The newspaper has an article on this sad state of affairs but even the papers don't seem to give a clear picture of what is happening. They are more concerned with the plight of students at the local university. None of their 'investigative' reporters seem to zoom in on the real story. How could 8 pumps break down simultaneously? There was no mention of who is operating the water treatment plant and how such a situation could have come about. Every pump at any treatment plant has a stand-by pump. In the event of failure of the operating pump, the stand-by pump would be utilised to minimise interruptions to the supply of water to the consumers.

Nobody seems to ask how 8 pumps could breakdown at the same time! The running of the water treatment plant has been privatised and I guess the operators of this treatment plant have powerful connections which has enabled them to be kept out of the news! So much for 'investigative' reporters in this country.

Operating a water treatment plant is not very difficult, actually. It is easy money if the operators pay attention to the maintenance part of the job.

The raw water is extracted at (1. Intake). Depending on the quality of the raw water - chlorine, allum and lime are added and the water flows to the flocculation tank(2) and then to the sedimentation tank(3) where the unwanted particles settle down and are periodically removed. The water is then channeled to the filters(4) where the finer particles are removed and the clear water is collected into the clear water tank(5). Chlorine is added for disinfection purposes and lime to control the PH value. At No. 6 is where the pumps used for pumping out the clear water to elevated reservoirs are located. The problem could be here. If the pumps are not maintained properly, then they will breakdown and no water can be pumped out.

On the other hand, if somebody had been sleeping on the job and had allowed the clear water tank to overflow, the excess water might have flowed into the pumphouse and inundated the pumps! That could also be a possibility. We will never know as all our 'investigative' reporters are busy at the University Utara Malaysia taking photos of students playing with water pumped from wells at the campus.

Why are they having wells at the campus is another mistery especially after the government had spent millions to lay trunk mains leading to the campus, building reservoirs on the hilltop for them and a special pumphouse to pump the water up to these reservoirs! Maybe they had advanced knowledge of the possibility of 8 pumps breaking down simultaneously at the water treatment plant!

Turning Point

This morning was a good day at the golf course for me. I managed to beat all 3 of my golfer friends who were playing with me. Even Mr.Consistency gave up after hole 5. Tomorrow I will be playing with 1 less stroke.

In order to encourage me, my friends(the more experienced golfers) gave me strokes. It will start with 1 and will be increased each time I lose until I get to the turning point where I actually beat them with the given number of strokes. After that the strokes will be reduced by 1 if I keep on winning.

Tomorrow we tee-off at 7.30am. Hope I can hang on to my winning streak! Another lady wants to join us and I have to give her 5 strokes! Cor blimey! I hope I remember the way Tiger Woods swung his clubs at the recent WGC-CA Championships. That will come in handy plus all the tips my friends gave me as I was playing with regards to course management.

One of them even gave me some equations to remember. "If your equation has trees in it, remove them and you will be alright." Which simply means if you had teed-off into the woods, tap the ball following the easiest way to the fairway so that you will be in a position to attack the green. Good advice. Must remember to execute that equation.

Still On Golf

Went to the practice green to brush up and hone my skills in putting, chipping and pitching. Spent nearly 2 hours, bent over and swinging my clubs diligently trying to put the balls near to the pin as possible. Going into the hole is more of luck for me at this stage.

Something else happened from all this diligence. A small muscle at the lower back to the right side has started to complain. Now I can't straighten myself too quickly after bending over for so long. Got to do it slowly. Anyway, that cumbersome nagging pain didn't stop me from going for golf again the next day. Must beat those guys and that 'gal'.

The four of us teed-off at 7.30am. From the beginning I knew it wasn't going to be my day. By the end of the 9th hole I was at the bottom of the score list. Bummer. I have to rest for at least a week to get over that sore muscle. Anyway, that 'sore' muscle didn't stop me from playing tennis in the evening. Had a good game and even forced one of the opponents to retire midway in the 2nd set due to exhaustion! That's what I call a workout.

I am still watching all the golf competitions that are being shown on TV to see how the professionals play and learn more about how the game is played. My day will come.

Golf Anyone?

I have played various types of games in my lifetime. From the group games that we invent when we were kids(police and thief, hide and seek) to the more established and internationally recognised games like football, volley-ball, badminton, ping-pong, tennis and golf. Of late I have the opportunity to play more golf as I am retired and have more time on my hands than I care to admit.

It is a strange game where one has to hit a small round ball into a small hole. The distance from the stating point to the hole varies, between 300+ - 500+ yards. The first blow is called a tee-off where one uses the biggest 'club' in the arsenal of clubs to whack the ball to as far as one can or as in my case, out of my sight - probably into the 'forest' or pond or 'unmown' area of the course. This seems to give a certain amount of pleasure to my opponents as I have the knack of playing from one side of the fairway to the other side as I slowly approach the 'green'. I am also very good at playing from tree to tree and am very familiar with the location of all the ponds and drains on our 9 hole course.

But I am getting the hang of the game and have started to hit straight, maybe not towards the pin, nevertheless straight as opposed to the 'curvaceous' shots that carry my ball out of bounds. Of late I have been buying a lot of drinks but all this shall come to an end.
Note to self:"I must go to the driving range and the practice green to hone my driving, pitching and putting skills so I can beat some of these guys and 'gal'."

An important factor in playing this game is the exercise I get, dragging my golf set for 5 or 6 kilometers. Hopefully by the end of the year I will be slimmer, my knees will be stronger and my HDL will increase.

Hole1(Par 4) where we Tee-off. To the right is the practice range and to the left is a pond.

Hole 5 (Par 5) Drain right across with a pond about 300yds on the right.

Hole 7(Par3) The pond in front has gobbled up a lot of balls.

The practice green.

The Arts?

There was an article in the World Section of our local newspaper about a show in Rapid City, South Dakota where French performance artists vomited, simulated sex and threw fake faeces besides stripping and called this ‘art’! The promoter for these Frenchmen, Kevin Dorsman seems to think that it was well done as performance art although it was stopped shortly after the simulated sex act involving a carrot. The promoter did apologise as he discovered that the act was too extreme for the people of Rapid City. It seems nobody really knew what these guys were going to do when they hired them. Is this really art?

When you say art to me, not necessarily ‘performing’, this is what comes to my mind :

Venus de Milo, an ancient Greek statue and one of the most famous works of ancient Greek sculpture.

Mona Lisa, or La Gioconda (La Joconde), a 16th century oil painting on poplar wood by Leonardo da Vinci.

The Taj Mahal (sometimes called "the Taj") generally considered the finest example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements of Persian, Turkish and Indian.

Performing arts would bring to mind things like cultural dances, Shakespeare, musicals, mime, magic shows, stage bands, opera, and so on and so forth …

How could vomitting, throwing fake faeces and simulating sex act with a carrot be calssified as art? What is the world coming to or did I miss something in the last decade or so? I might have been in a Rip Van Winkle zone when they reclassified the term ‘performing arts’. But if given the choice, I would rather have nothing to do with it even if I am considered as a prude or old fashioned. I have to draw the line for myself and this type of ‘performing arts’ stays out of my zone. Waaaaaaaaaaaay out.

Staying Healthy When Old

One thing I notice when I am on my usual morning walks is that the ones who are religiously exercising are the older generation. Even their numbers are more than the younger generation. There are teenagers and the young adults, but they usually come to socialize more than actually exercise. They will run a few hundred feet and then end up running around the trees chasing each other.

Whereas the older generation, made up of the healthy to the sickly, are very serious about the whole ‘keeping healthy’ workout. We always take our health for granted when we are young or when in the pink of health. When something happens to wake us up from our stupor, then we start to prioritise our activities and manage to make time for exercise and other health related activities.

I can see so many elderly people who have survived heart attacks or strokes and who are regularly exercising to stay healthy. When we start losing that precious commodity that was given freely at birth, we try to work hard to keep it as long as we can. Growing old gracefully was probably coined for greeting cards. There is no ‘gracefully’ with old age. You lose your strength, your stability, your reflexes, your memory, sometimes your sense of humour and probably have a lot of gas as well.

What you really need is to be healthy with strong muscles and limbs to carry your body around. For the mental workout, reading is about the best exercise. Otherwise you would end up being a burden to those whom you love. What I have noticed is that no one wants to die before their time. And those who are surviving, staying healthy and strong seems to be the priority. Life after death is another story.

Smoke Free Environment

It is a good thing to have a smoke free environment, especially in an air-conditioned hall or building. We had a dinner and dance function at our club last night to celebrate the end of the Chinese New Year and also our regular fellowship night which is held once a month. The organising chairman has been advertising the event and calling up a lot of the members to give support to make this event a success. When he approached me to get some tennis players to attend, I did mention to him that we all love to go but most of us are not happy that smokers are allowed to puff away in the enclosed area. We do not want to be second-hand smokers.

I read that inhaling second-hand smoke is worse than smoking the cigarette and besides the obvious danger to our health, the smell of smoke on our clothes is also a put off. The smoke can penetrate right down to the undergarments! After listening to my complaints, he said he will do something about it.

Last night before the dinner began, he made the announcement to all smokers, "You are free to smoke, but do it out on the balcony. There should be no smoking inside the dance hall". That made our day. The music was good. We had a live band from K.L. called the 'Ghost Riders' who belted away the type of numbers that we liked and got almost everyone on the floor. There was of course the better dancers who walked away with the hampers. They could swing their hips better than most of us and the swinging lady also happens to be a good friend. There was a special prize for the best dressed gentleman and one also for the lady who happened to be our good friend also.

All in all it was a fun night with wonderful music and good company and most of all without the smoke. I hope that policy stays for future events. Below is a photo of some of our gang.