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Let's save the Earth by doing gigs!

I was reading about the Live Earth concert held simultaneously 24 hours in some of the biggest cities around the world yesterday. While the concept is the same as the 1985 Live Aid concert as well as the recent Live 8 in 2005, Live Earth was the brainchild of former future President of the USA, Al Gore who is now famous for his environmental causes especially concerning global warming.

Malaysia itself wouldn't want to be left out of the rain so yesterday we held the SuriaFM Green Every Day Concert 2007 at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil. While not as big as Live Earth, the concert wasn't too shabby with performances from local artistes as well as those from Singapore and Indonesia.

Considering the state of the environment these days, I praise the noble effort of the organizers though I find it ironic how people organize concerts to raise awareness about energy conservation. Why? Well first and foremost, the concert to raise awareness about energy conservation itself uses a lot of energy. Those electric guitars and amps aren't going to ring itself is it? Not to mention those stage lights they use.. Then imagine the energy used by people who traveled to the stadium. Add all that up and you'll end up with a huge waste of energy. Oh, and I was just talking about the concert in Malaysia, never mind the Live Earth. Here's what I read from the UK Daily Mail:

A Daily Mail investigation has revealed that far from saving the planet, the extravaganza will generate a huge fuel bill, acres of garbage, thousands of tonnes of carbon emissions, and a mileage total equal to the movement of an army.

The most conservative assessment of the flights being taken by its superstars is that they are flying an extraordinary 222,623.63 miles between them to get to the various concerts - nearly nine times the circumference of the world. The true environmental cost, as they transport their technicians, dancers and support staff, is likely to be far higher.

The total carbon footprint of the event, taking into account the artists' and spectators' travel to the concert, and the energy consumption on the day, is likely to be at least 31,500 tonnes of carbon emissions, according to John Buckley of Carbonfootprint.com, who specialises in such calculations.

Throw in the television audience and it comes to a staggering 74,500 tonnes. In comparison, the average Briton produces ten tonnes in a year.

The concert will also generate some 1,025 tonnes of waste at the concert stadiums - much of which will go directly into landfill sites.

See what I mean? Still, a noble cause nonetheless. Hurm...

Well, as they say.. Save the rainforest; eat a vegetarian.

My Friday Prayer Experience

The mosque was not too spacious to be able to lodge hundreds of people, but large enough when the fact that its location is in a non-Muslim dominating region is put into perspective. There was some make-shift tents prepared as to give extra space for overload crowds who devotedly attended the ritual weekly congregation. Forecasters earlier said that the day’s temperature was 11° Celsius, but the heavy downpours were believed to have reduced it somewhat. Those seated under the tents were apparently freezing, but they stayed anyway. Nothing in this world seemed to bother them from remaining there.

The pouring rains were too loud that they eclipsed the sound of sermon from inside the mosque. Periodically, a bloke or two were seemed entering the mosque ground, covering their heads with a piece of cloth or bare hands and dashing to get to the nearest roofed space. They were a bit late that most of the spaces were already occupied, but nothing could stop them from attending the congregation. Soon, the sermon was finished, and the crowds stood up in unison to prepare for the prayer. Those who could not initially find empty spaces tried to squeeze in. Amidst the chilliness of the day, the sound of the rain, and the over packed mosque and make-shift tents, they started praying, led by the Imam. In a little while they finished. Miraculously, the downpours also stopped, as if it understood the problem it would lay for the dismissing crowds.

As the congregation was inching to the end, a proportion of the Muslims stayed chatting with fellow countrymen or even strangers who had just become friends, while some left straight away, perhaps to continue working. It was only their lunch hour after all.

That was the scene during today’s Friday prayer in a small city Down Under that is Adelaide, as seen by my bare eyes. I believe, a typical scene as such can be seen anywhere around the earth where Muslims reside. We might live a totally different life from others, or speak different languages, or perhaps drive different cars, but when it comes to how we are seen by Him as embodied by the act of performing our obligation such as this Friday prayer, unequivocally, we are all the same.

Footnote: My apology for the second-class photo, I had to basically snap pretty quickly as to avoid eye-contact from the crowds. You do know it is not appropriate to take pictures in such situation don’t you.

Wah Wah San Bukan Sekadar Wah Wah

We are getting better in outlining visions. When the Malaysia Ideal 2020 Vision seems to be quite blurry, came 2057 idea, envisioned by Pak Lah recently.

2020, 2057, and what’s next? An absurd kinda pattern I can say which cease to an end and the numbers seem to increase in the series.

"The ultimate objective that we should aim for is a Malaysia that is a fully developed country by the year 2020,"

That was what Dr. Mahathir coined at the Malaysian Business Council when he first resonated to us his 2020 Vision.

“This is the Malaysia in my dreams for 2057. One hundred years of independence, one hundred years of advancement,”

And that was how Pak Lah replied, realizing he only has 13 more years to materialize the dream we built. Are we lost on our way to 2020? Why we bother to have another set of vision for us to look forward to when we have a good nice ride and focus we have been fixing to all this while? Is this how they are trying to tell us that we have failed to meet our 2020 Vison?

My humble two cents, I think Vision 2020 is another testimony that Malaysians take pride in not being the best and by saying we'll try our best but they're not even giving their best to start with. And we even set our own dateline and it would allow us to procrastinate.

Be it 2020 or 2057, why don’t we take a pledge to have the largest dick now? The global continuously and progressive competition simply will never stop. Many great challenges are awaiting us to deal with and seriously, with what we have now, there are almost nothing we can be proud of, except for the harmonious ethnic composition we have, with Mat Rempits and Rapists emerged as the new ethnics in Malaysia.

The time is now, or should I say, was 14 years ago when Dr. Mahathir first introduced the ever intelligent 2020 Vision to us. We are running out of time, people. We must work together, not because we have no choice, but because it's right and smartest thing to do. The world watches us for god sake. I couldn’t afford seeing us being the laughing stock of the world for being unable to catch what we have marked.

And starting with oneself, make this our own delicate pledge and willfully work on it. It's a duty for each of Malaysians to be committed in making our dream comes true. It’s a Malaysian Dream!

And if you guys seem to have lost in the idea, take a look and a deep breath now and read this like you are reading Playboy’s Book of Lingerie with full passion and focus. And after that, take initiative to do something and you might want to read this to have a better idea on what to do next. Just make sure that you have an open mind to go with it before reading that two astonishing articles.

When we go overseas, we say we're Malaysians. Why not the same here? Love our country. Show it. Make a change.

P/s - 50 years of nationhood and it is counting. Let's give a real hoot, people.

Of Issues Pertaining Teenagers and Making A Difference

We are severely surrounded by worrying issues concerning teenagers these days. Mat Rempit here and there. 7-year-old boy sniffing glue, sleeping amongst the debris on the street. Partying around, sex everywhere; they call it liberal way of living. University dropouts on the rise, whilst the list of jobless graduates never ceases to increase. Lack of concern towards the community. Not respecting the elderly. Resulting in the former Yang Di-Pertuan Agong stood up and voiced out his concern to the public. Now, that is serious.

Then we see how people’s apprehension was aired, extensively publicized public forums were held, and countless organizations were organized, but the result?

What good is brought when a distinguished youth’s organization decided to call a troop of Mat Rempits for the North Pole’s free fall exploration? A good way to finish people’s money I guess, or perhaps to squeeze in some good names into the record book and open the apathetic public eyes, which in turn leads to more votes during the election. In the end, my predict says those Mat Rempit would go back to their racing lanes, bohsias in their cuddle, boasting about how they deceived those people to bring them thousands of miles away to do the silly, futile exploration, purportedly bringing the good name of the country. And the organization people, on the other side of the scope, would walk proudly in the middle of the city amongst throngs, claiming that in doing such so-called feat they had triumphantly helped the country. Well, probably not a reality, merely a wild guess which apparently might be wrong.

Being a teenager myself, my thinking is, everything starts from our own selves. Not denying laudable efforts from the others, but simply telling that we ourselves ought to change if good results are to be expected. How? Simple. Read daily newspapers. Help an old blind man crossing the road. Go to the nearby soccer field to support you local team, not jeering at them. Stop watching porn. Ask your father if his car needs to be washed. Get to know the name of your neighbour next door. Make a difference. In this sense, I truly agree with TheCicak for their article on ten things we can do to make a difference. Also, the government does not pay to send you overseas to see you partying with chicks, do they? Nor did your parents expect to accompany you at the hospital bedside following an injury from a series of night rempiting when they give you a Honda Cub on your 18th birthday.

This does not mean the other side of the community circle, non-teenagers alike can simply sit down and stop doing their parts though. There are still plenty, plenty of works that can be done. Members of the parliament, stop pointing fingers and rambles on trivial issues. Bocor sana, bocor sini, what the heck? There, your child is left at home contemplating on which road to rempit on tonight, or which pub to go, you never know. Believe me, their action is only inviting laughter from the global audience having watched them on the YouTube. Change, again that is the key.

From shoulder to shoulder, let us make a whole different world, starting from our own selves. Then only we can improve as a whole unit of community, and the jobless will finally get jobs, and so on and so forth.

The most difficult part, of course, is to change.

Aku banyak member. Respek aku.

Ahli Fikir really made me fikir. It took me few years to apprehend what their song 'Samseng' was all about for real. It is sad of how the thing got us really occupied, stupidly. Here how it goes, and I’ve been thinking to write this thread every time I got back from any kedai mamak or malls, where men in group can be seen easily around.

When you go around, you want to look cool on foot with your bunch of friends, or should I say clan. It is somewhat an era of foolish reasoning of believing that if you are alone, with no one backing you on your back, you will breathe your last breath and die unaided. I go about anywhere to see people sit in group, looking each other intensely, like trying very hard to trigger any spot for a fight. They just love to be intense and create such stressed ambiance around.

Who is stronger? That is one and only thing that somewhere to be found in their intelligence. It’s the matter of who got more troops to back them up, and if you have more than 5 or 10 of your clique, you will breathe easily and walk like a real dick and if you don’t, you better be scared not to get beaten if you say something wrong.

Aku banyak member. Hisap konek aku.

Fuck off. You deserve a middle finger dude, big time.

Joining a gang and being in a clan or clique means you have lots of friends. Middle finger. Joining a gang makes you look like an idiot wannabe you idiot wannabe (yes, I repeat). Being in a gang is not just walking around with a red or blue belt around your waist. Being in a gang is not a game, and it is not the way to show that you have the biggest dick. When 30 people started to beat this one rebellious guy, who has larger dick? You tell me.

We are an advancing species. We develop new technologies, as well as new means to be recognized, to be respected. And looks like being in a gang or a clan would give us that petty latter more easily. They just get the wrong end of the stick of what respect is all about. For them, respect means fear. Dude, respect is far beyond that stupid fixation. Days in Koleq really thought me about the subject of respect. You don’t have to have the physical strength to get respect, you don’t have to have the cash to make everyone bow and do you a blowjob. It’s about respecting others, and it will be reciprocated, and that’s the only way to gain respect, and not by staring at others like you are the only who have glaring eyes or being part of your stupid clan. At Koleq or it can be anywhere, there are many figures that made their name in sports, academics and leadership etc, but only few and not all of them really got my respect as to develop such in me, they have to be all down to earth and humble, and have a great deal of respecting others.

We live in the world where there are so many progress and changes as days go by. We progress in our culture so well. We start to recognize gay marriage, human cloning and other things which are unimaginable to us in the past. So people sitting in a gang, and dreadfully looking forward to be in any fight, walking around with killing stare, is something we should expect. It happens everywhere in the world, so why shouldn't we expect it to happen here as well? So let’s go against the stereotype guys. People think (it is for real) that we are a bunch of wannabes that trying very hard to look cool by being in a gang, talk big and nothing come in return. We still sit there at kedai mamak, waiting for tey ais. Unlike the real deal, the Mafias, the Yakuzas, who talk less, and earn both money and respect in return. I’m not trying to give an idea about being like any Mafias or Yakuzas, but they really dig up the thing called respect the right style and what is more is they talk less, and do their shit more, not just sit there and stare, stare and talk big.

Butterfingers had adroitly coined once, in this brilliant line of their song,

Bila kawan ramai
keliling kita
Cakap besar tunjuk belang
Tapi bila sorang-sorang
Pengecut pemalu
Macam semua orang

I suppose that if your mates look after you, then it is a good thing. But terrorizing and creating discomfort of other people is definitely not. Most of us feel safe having their friends around but intimidating other people is a cheap way to earn a middle finger, not respect. You aren’t going to get any respect if you don’t respect others in the first place, and talking trash with millions of your clan behind your back isn’t going to make you a respected person. It only makes you a good pemidato and you might want to compete for Kejohanan Pidato Piala Di-Raja for being able to talk that big.

The best thing to give to an opponent is respect, and never takes a person’s dignity and self-esteem, they worth everything to them, but nothing to you. Just bare that in the end, we are all separate - our stories, no matter how similar, come to a fork and diverge. We are drawn to each other because of our similarities, but it is our difference we must learn to respect. Just be smart by respecting others, as what goes around comes around, and you might get the biggest respect by simply give others a little respect.

Saya ni bukan sempurna
Tapi saya tahu
Dosa dan pahala
Ku tuhan sahaja yang tahu

P/s – 'You’ll Never Walk Alone' if you have the thing called respect, and it not necessarily literally.

A Sad Day For Malaysia

I am too tired, too devastated to jot anything down after reading this article on Malaysiakini. Have a look.

Sorry for the hazy picture, try to key in the boy's IC number and do the semakan daftar pemilih yourself if you keen to.

Let us put it this way. Hopefully it is merely a political propaganda, a twist made to fuel the scorching jostle of the political atmosphere in Malaysia. But if it is not, what a sad day it is for Malaysia...