The Chosen Race

The whole town was excited about the news. Even the Elders halted their meeting after their prayers to check out the validity of the news by themselves. It was hard to believe that the news was real and not a mere hoax. After so many generations, it had almost become a folklore even fable and the younger generations just didn't care about it anymore. To the elders and some strong believers, this was described in the holy scripture, not just once but many time, and thus it must be a truth.

Mali followed the crowd moving toward the communal gathering spot. There were already a big crowd surrounding the spot and everyone was trying to squeeze through to get closer to the building. Mali could sense the excitements and anxieties among the crowd. Every adults were aware and taught about it by their religion teachers; but to witness the very existence in front of their eyes was something too much to accept within a short time. However, curiosity was prominent and has overcame the warning given by some Elders about it.

A few Elders were standing in a circle beside the massive trees that form the main entrance of the communal gathering spot, reciting prayers with their eyes closed and each holding a Holy scripture. The spot was heavily guarded and the crowd couldn't get through. The voices from the excited crowd has become a loud buzzing noise, amid the low but clear prayers from the group of Elders.

It was too warm inside the crowd, Mali squeezed through out of the crowd and found a few of his friends talking in low voices and promptly joined them.

“Is it real?” Mali asked Nila who was the oldest among the group.
“Who knows for sure. Our Holy scripture talks about it in many passages”
“It will bring big disaster to us. Not a good sign. Not at all” said another friend with a sad face.
“We have to please The All Mighty and do exactly what is said in the scripture, His punishment will be severe if we disobey” said Nila in serious tone.
“I have to see it to believe it” said Mali. He wasn't convinced. To him, it was a part of an old fable. There were so many things in the Holy scripture which he hadn't seen or experienced. He was one of those liberal minded young generation.
“The ground shakes and thunder roars, fire emerges from sky. So hot that the hardest hammer melts. They shall come from the ground in thousands. Not the bravest could stop them” Said Nila, “this is what the scripture says, you have to believe it”
Mali kept his silence. To challenge the scripture was unthinkable and it was also a punishable act.

Suddenly, the crowd was silent and Mali saw the head of the Elders was standing on the black rock, holding the three pointed Elder's rod, the symbol of most sacred next to the original Holy Text which was lost many generations ago.

“My fellow believers of The Almighty. May you be blessed with His gaze and away from the punishment of Holy fire. Our chosen Elders in the past had delivered to us the words of The Almighty and they are recorded in our Holy Scripture. Words that have guided us in our every existence. Praise The Almighty.”
“Praise The Almighty” responded the crowd.
“The same Holy Scripture has also warned us of the dangers and has taught us how to deal with them. Praise The Almighty”
“Praise The Almighty” responded the crowd.
“The same Holy Scripture has described of a demon race, a devil race, so evil that it dares to defy The Almighty. Save us from the devil, Almighty”
“Save us from the devil, Almighty”
“A group of young brave hunters, went far beyond the mountains and came back with a news. They have seen the Devil. They have captured a devil and brought it back. Praise The Almighty. This is yet another sign from The Almighty that we will overcome and defeat the demon race, as it is said in the Holy Scripture.”
The crowd erupted into a loud buzzing noise. Some looked surprised and most were saying prayers as if to defend against the Devil.
Mali tried to hide his disbelief and showed little emotion. The belief in the existence of a demon race and the eventual war against it had provided unity for many generations, as well as unquestionable powers to the Elders.

“To demonstrate our unquestioned obedience to The Almighty, as well as our determination to defeat the demons, we shall consume the captured devil with Holy fire. Praise The Almighty”

Excitement were in the crowd once again. A public consumption with Holy fire had not been seen for a long long time.

The Holy fire was prepared by a few Elders as only the Elders were blessed with the knowledge to do it. A small circular stone wall was built and the Elders were working within it with the sacred rocks which were kept secretly inside the temple of the Elders. The temple is a sacred and holy place off limit to everyone except the Elders. Death is the only punishment for any trespassers. The Elders were busily working inside the circular stone wall and the crowd was sitting around it from a far distance. Most of them were reciting the prayers with their heads down. Occasionally, a few will throw a quick glance at the circular stone wall as if to find out what the Elders were doing but yet didn't want others to catch them spying the Elders.

After a while, a tall pale green flame appeared from the center of the stone wall. The heat could be felt by the crowd sitting furthest away from the stone wall.
“The Holy Fire is ready” one of the Elders went to the head of the Elders and bowed.
“Bring out the devil”
The crowd moved back in horror and some even tried to run away.
It was the unthinkable, unspeakable and ugliest thing they have ever seen.

It was tied tightly on a pole before the pale green fire.

The head of the Elders was saying prayers.
“Praise The Almighty. We are made in His image and resemble His Holiness. Say out loud, how do we look?”
“Our skin is the colour of the Holy Black River, covered with beautiful hard scales like the trees that provide us food and shelter.”
“Our face has the image of The Almighty. Two horns to symbolise His mercy and His rules. Our teeth are long and sharp so we could defeat the demons. Our eye is in the center to symbolise the One and Only Almighty. It is red to symbolise the sun that warms us. Our ears are long and big so that we can hear the Holy words clearly. One side is higher than the other to symbolise the Elders who are chosen and closer to The Almighty”
“We speak and understand the Holy language, in which the Holy Words was delivered to us”
“Our claws on our hands and feet are long and sharp so that we can hunt and find our food in the ground. Our tail is long and pointy so that we can bow down and pray to The Almighty”

“Very Good. My fellow believers” said the head of the Elders.
“Condemn the devil. How unspeakably ugly is it?”

“The devil skin is fair and soft, and covered with ugly soft short hair. The devil head has no horns, a clear deviation from the image of The Almighty. It is covered in horrible black hair.”
“The devil has two small eyes and they have disgusting hair around them. There is only One and only Almighty. How can anything besides the devil has two eyes? It has two small ears on both sides of the head. How can anything besides the devil not want to hear the Holy words clearly? Praise The Almighty”
“The devil has ugly pink flesh on the mouth and evil white small teeth. It has five long ugly fingers on each hands without the beautiful claws. This is a obvious symbol of evil.”
“The devil has no tail. It has never bow and pray to The Almighty. It doesn't speak or understand the Holy Language so even the Holy words can't be passed to it. What an evil thing”

“What shall we do with a devil, my fellow believers?”

“Consume it with the Holy fire so that its evil spirit can't fly away to form another devil and come back to hurt the race of The Almighty”

“Praise The Almighty. Praise The Almighty ....”

Mali watched with a blank emotion as the fair fleshed devil was consumed and burnt in the Holy fire, screaming with sounds that were not understood by anyone.

Socialist Alternative Encounter

by chance, i met someone on the street promoting anti-war and Palestine support when I was doing my weekly stroll in the city. they were having a 2-day seminar during the Easter long weekend. being the supporter of both causes, i felt oblighed to buy a ticket to attend the seminar, to show my support.

There were 3 speakers in the first seminar. one of them was a US veteran from Iraq and he pronounced Iraq as "I-Rack", just like Mr Bush. another speaker was a social activist from South Africa. The last one was a local politician from the Socialist Alternative.

Having no expectations, what these people presented were fresh and new to me. All went well and after the seminar, a guy with a black & white checkered cloth wrapped around his neck came and introduced himself and we started to chat. the checkered cloth reminded me of the late Arafat. it was a warm night and we were indoor, so i guess the cloth was more symbolic for a cause than for keeping him warm.

we started with the weather and yara-yara-yara, it went to politics and current affairs. he was a strong supporter of socialist movements and believed in workers demostration and strikes. talked about the 1917 Russia Revolution etc etc.
being a skeptic all my life and well known for my cynical atitude, naturally i questioned and challeged the workability of a socialist or communist country.
"can you tell me of a good example of a successful socialist country or government?" I asked him, hoping for some fresh views.
"No, there is no real socialist country in this world" he said. "the Russian Revolution was a very successful one".
"But, it didn't last long and the workers didn't even get to form government...." I reminded him.
"Thats because it was surrounded by many Imperialist countries who wanted to bring the socialist country down. They started a civil war in Russia"
From then, I realised that I was talking to someone akin a religion fundamentalist. What he believes in is perfect and the reason this perfect system didn't work was due to "enemies" who always wanted to destroy it. All sound too familiar?
Knowing I an't going anywhere further, I switched the subject slightly and asked him how does the socialist model work, government structure etc.
He paused for a while and said "the workers will take over and make collective decisions"
"HUH??" he lost me there. in my effort of getting better clarity, i gave a real example and asked him "how would the socialists manage a big corporation like TELSTRA (the biggest telecom player in Australia)"
"The working class will make collective decisions and this will benefit all the working class, not just some capitalists"
"thats fair enough, mate, but how would they manage it? who makes the decisions?"
"There wouldn't be no managers or chairman, the workers will have meetings and make collective decisions"
From that point, i knew I was talking to a guy who had no idea how the real world works. I carried on and asked him "there is a need for someone to make decisions on what to do with the network, somebody needs to get the funding to maintain the network etc etc"
He looked puzzled and said "in a socialist country, everyone is equal, even a leader will just get the same salary as a normal worker, and he can be removed anytime if we are not happy with him"
Oh boy, i could shoot this down with a dozen of simple common sense. But, his next arguement really had me speechless.
"thats how the hunter and gatherer societies work. everyone gets an equal share even the leaders"

only then i fully realised i was talking to a guy who apparently went through an alien time machine and came to the 21st century from his hunter & gatherer time.
Let see how far apart we were. counting backwards, we are now in the cyber internet era, before that was the industrial era, earlier was the farming and trading, farming, and finally hunter & gatherer. he strongly believe his socialist model will work because it worked in a hunter & gatherer society.
"what happens if there is different in opinions and no decision can be made?"
"Every sensible socialist will try their best to work out the best for the society, everyone will get equal share"
THATS a huge assumption there dude. Everyone is a sensible and responsible socialist!
what happen if you have free riders, non believers?
what happens to the artists and scientists? what about creativity?
A typical model that promotes "regression towards the mean"
Simply means everyone/everything within the model will progress to become very close to an average value. so everybody will be average Joe and plain Jane. or Ah Beng, Ah Seng, Ah Lian, Ah Hua.
no motivations to become Gandhi, Newton, Picaso etc.
But a huge resource pool to tap into for the likes of Osama, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot.

Do you still carry on the conversation if you were me? I didn't know how to tell him "mate, you are way off" without hurting his feelings. should I bring up the great Pol Pot who was trying to transform the whole of Combodia into a true socialist country by breaking down the cities and urbans and force convert everyone to farmers & workers?

Fortunately, a few of his friends came over and I was quick to sieze the opportunity. After some social yara yara, I told them i had to catch the train to go home and left.

I was sure there's more than that in the socialist idealogy. So, I went back to attend another seminar the next day.
This seminar was about the 1917 Russia revolution. After the young energitic girl read out her presentation in fast pace, there was the Q&A session.
Lots of people raised their hands. Hmm... not bad, I thought, expecting some mind opening questions and answers.
It turned out, the people who stood up to speak didn't ask questions but instead just added on to what the speakers had presented, praising the Russia Revolution was the greatest in human history, telling us how corrupted the novelties were and how the workers were oppressed.
To be fair, most of these were correct but tell me something i didn't know. I could pick up a history book and start to complain about the corruptions in the Tsar Russia.
Finally, I raised my hand and asked the same question "how would a socialist government manage a big corporation like Telstra?"
Again, that "collective decison by workers" came out.
A smart guys added proudly and said "during the Russia Revolution, the railway workers decided how to run the trains and only transported the worker going from city to city for strikes, but refused to let the elites and novelties on board. This is how socialists work"
HUH?? Dude, we are talking about a stable country like Australia, not during revolution!
Another guy jumped in, he was the chair person, and said "I worked for Telstra for more than 15 years and I can tell you, all I did for the last 15 years had nothing to do with improving or helping the lives of the poor people in Australia. It only benefited the capitalists whose main objective is profit and profit and yara yara yara..." and guess what? the whole floor clapped. Except me of course.
then another smart dude jumped in and said "we will provide telephone and internet services to everyone in the rural areas, not like now even the people in the suburbs don't get broadband.... there will be more colaborations between the industries too... in the end, it will be collective decisions from the workers"
"so who is going to fund it?" "Telstra is a public listed company and we have investors all over the world" alas, they didn't bother with my question any more and proceeded with another guy statement on how the worker strike brought down the capitalists in Chile.

U know what, i learnt a lot about socialist and its idealogy.
In a nutshell, it is "collective decisions of the workers"
U wanna join them and work for a just and fair world? not too bad if you are a hunter or gatherer.

Blaa Blaa Black sheep

Blaa Blaa Black Sheep

Every little boy or little girl know this song, or something in that tune. “Blaa Blaa Black sheep, Have u any wool? Yes sir yes sir three bag full ...”

For many many years, I always thought sheeps and goats are the same species of animal. Well, both have 4 legs and 2 horns, eat grass, make “bleaaa” sound. Most importantly, both are called “Yang” in Chinese which my primary school English teacher told me meant “goat”. Sheep in Chinese is “Mien Yang” which techincally translates to “wool goat”. So, for many years, I always thought sheeps are goats with long and thick hair. As simple as that and I was ready to argue with anyone who thought they are different species.

Now I know they are very different creatures and belong to different species. The most significant difference is in their genes. Goats have 60 pairs of chromosomes while sheeps have only 54. They are also very different in behaviours and probably their inteligence.

I haven't had good experience handling goats. When talking to people who had goats, they always tell me it is almost impossible to keep them inside a fenced area. Goats would jump, find opennings, or even undo latches on gates to escape. This says something about their nature and inteligence.

The same can't be said about sheeps. I had the experience to work in a wool shearing shed and witnessed how sheeps behave. The shearers, strong and tough blokes, would drag the sheeps, from their over crowded holding pen, by grabbing their front legs. Then these blokes would lock one of the sheeps front leg between their thighs and start shearing. I don't think that is the most pleasant experience for the sheep. These blokes are paid per sheep and when racing against time, almost every sheep would have a few patches of their skins cut out. But guess what, most of these sheeps would just take these assults quietly and amazingly without a single “Bleaaa” nor any strong willed struggles.

Now I understand why some religions call their follower “good sheeps of the mighty Lord”. Sheeps are perfect and ideal follower. No questions, no complains, just accept authority and conform unconditionally. Yea... I would be happy to have believers like them. I could have their body and soul with a snap of my fingers without all those annoying trouble makers who question and ask for proof. Mate, you question me, u go to hell. Just believe and thats love, thats faith. How nice. World peace.

On the other hand, I think goats are non conformists. They escape enclosures, they jump fences, they survive tough environments. Headache for farmers. No wonder some religions project goats as evil, bad omen etc. If everyone behaves like this, how do the Lord saves u? You have to be a good sheep to get to heaven.

So, are u a sheep or goat?

U turn to ??

Some days in life, a lot of people might face this - "looking back the years, what have I done? and where am I heading to?"

The lucky ones might not be bothered and say "bugger it, I do what I do. Whatever good enough now will be good enough later".

The luckier ones don't think about these and just carry on. Who cares who is the Pesident of @#$% USA? Global warming, is that why my coke ain't as cold and tasty as 10 years ago?

The unlucky ones have too much time in their hands and sometimes they stop and think. "Do I carry on like now? whats ahead for me?" The worst question they could mumble to themselves is - "Is it what it supposed to be? can I make a change, or can I change?"

This is definitely a "NO. NO". Politicians hate these thinking people. Great blessed Dictators like Chairman Mao, Saddam, Mugabe etc etc, as well as the respectable holy mullahs, took no risks and exterminated them all useless thinking scums. No good. Disturbs social order and questions authority.

Well, lucky me. I am not at the extreme of the scales, having being average for the last 38 years of my life.
unlucky me, I asked the question. "Do I want to continue doing what I m doing? Whats next?"
That had me pondering for few months. Again, being one of the average crowd who judge achievements by the 5C's, life had been, well, average.
For the un-initiated ones, 5C means Condominium, Car, Career, Credit card and Cash. The guaranteed chics magnet.

The more motivated and success minded ones go for the 5M's, our Malaysian version of the 5C but better. Bravo, Malaysia Boleh. Well, Mansion, Mercedes, Master Platinum card, Membership of Premium Clubs, and of course Multi-millionaire, silly.
Having been in the average crowd for extensive period, I sorta figure out 5M's status is reserved for the blessed ones. One needs lots of special gifts to achieve such high status. Alright, thick skin, bend over, bodek, small brain, heartless ... do i have to tell u everything?

Anyway, lets not get distracted. Thus, the light came upon me and made me pondering for months. Lots of "what if" came to my mind.
Career change is a big thing, or at least its a big thing among us average chaps. A U turn to nowhere.

Lucky me (again), I don't have too smart a brain and blessed with little wisdom. After a while, I threw the tower and said "hell with it, I can't figure out everything ahead. Do it or lose it"
After that, everything became simple and straight forward. Inquired and applied for a course in Agriculture, settled some of the annoying bills, booked the flight etc etc. Whoala! I m now the second oldest student who has least experience in my class. All other students are in their late teens or early twenties AND been on a farm before they joined the class. So what does this 38 year old, who hadn't touched a real cattle before, doing among the experienced young lads?
Well, if u have figured that out, fill me in but skip the details because my brain capacity is already on overdrive driving tractors, making fences and feeding cattle.