Waking Up to Politics

Sobahul khair!

Today I woke up on the political side of the bed.

There is a lot to talk about today, and in the next three months at least with regards to politics. I personally have never had a special interest in politics. I always thought politics was boring. I used to relate politics to formal meetings betweens leaders of countries which never really led to any good or worthy outcomes. Never was I inspired by any politician when I was younger. Maybe because locally, our politics have been too predictable? And this has resulted in some citizens being either contented with the current state that they’re in, and not bothered with whatever changes that would take place in terms of the country’s policies.

I managed to catch a glimpse of Parliament on channel 5 lastnight (only mu 2nd time ever), and I must say that it did, for a while, get some of my attention. Of course it was just the summary of the whole thing, but what I enjoyed the most was seeing the MPs questioning our Ministers with mostly the concerns and sentiments from the grassroots. And I thought they did pretty well. (Not as if  there will be any changes based on those feedbacks though.)

ANYWAY…let’s move on to more interesting stuff in the world of politics. Two things: Anwar Ibrahim & the Democratic National Convention (DNC) for the U.S. Presidential election in November.

1. Anwar Ibrahim Wins Key By-Election

The man has always been passionate about wanting the best for his country, promoting justice and reformation. It started way back in the 70s when he was a student leader in one of the local Malaysian institutes. Throughout his life, controversies and allegations have always been linked to his name, and they still continue to, till this very day.

But analysts forsee that with the win that he secured yesterday, there is bound to be plenty of changes -reformations?- and surprises in the near future for Malaysian politics. Get ready Pak Lah, there’s more to come…

Here we go again

2. The DNC 2008: Barack, Barack, Barack

To be honest, it was Obama’s historic speech in the 2004 DNC which inspired me to start reading about politics. As of today, I don’t think there has been any other politician -or even a public figure/personality- who has been able to match the impactfulness, the purpose and the intensity of that memorable speech. (Except that Barack himself admitted yesterday that the speech his wife Michelle gave two days ago was a strong contender to it).

 http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/michelle?source=eo_myspace

I thought she was very good. But Barack has made a few more memorable speeches post DNC 2004. I don’t know, I still prefer Barack. You decide!

DNC 2004: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWynt87PaJ0 This speech catapulted his Presidential nomination. Goosebumps!

Yes We Can, Jan 09: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe751kMBwms&feature=related One of my favourites!

Yes We Can (Music Video):

9 million hits! My two ex-lovers (who I dumped) are in this video. Take your guess who they are

I also bought one of Barack’s books last year, “The Audacity of Hope” which was inspired from his 2004 speech. I highly recommend this. He writes critically, intelligently and gracefully. As a politician, he sure does write very well. When was the last time Bush wrote an article authored a book himelf? I’ve managed to finish 3/4 of the book so far. Not usually a slow reader, just that I’m reading other books at the same time. I have a knack of inter-changing between different books as I read them. All because of my selfish need for variety. Haha

I'm already thinking of getting his other books =)

 

Yes We Can,

Mizi

A Wet & Cold Sunday

What is your definition of a ‘perfect day’? Mine is… a day when you could actually choose when to get up, whenever you feel like getting up =D Erm… cold n rainy Sundays come in 2nd!

Anyway, today I didn’t have much of a choice as work was piling up so I had to wake up early. It’s five minutes till midnight now and I’m still working! Ok, so today was the last session for the Arabic Calligraphy workshop, conducted by a good friend of mine Ust Syed Hedder, and organised by Vocal Point. I’m glad that the class of ten people managed to learn a lot and enjoyed themselves throughout the whole 4 weeks. But for me, most importantly, is that it’s always nice to see new friendships able to emerge even in this short period of time. Nothing beats that. 

Sifu Hedder (centre) and his protege-like students =)

Monday’s right around the corner. Sigh. Another week, of more work. The cycle begins once again. Thank goodness there are other things to look forward to apart from just work. One of em is the Comex Fair! I’m thinking of getting myself a new notebook. My Compaq crashed yet again last week. For the 4th time in a year. That’s it. I knew I shouldn’t have gotten a Compaq notebook when all my friends warned me against it. But I still bought it anyway. Argh. Have you ever lost all your work in this manner before? It’s frustrating. It’s as depressing as losing all your childhood photo albums (unless you’ve been really wanting to get rid of them because you thought you looked weird when you were young?). Well, mine decided to crash at the most critical time. Just when all my work needed to be done and submitted by the end of this month. I don’t even know whether the files I had backed up were really backed up yet because my laptop is now officially certified as dead. Literally. Someone suggested HP. Say no more…Comex, here I come! Who’s coming with me??

P/s: I think I need 8 days in a week to finish the tons of work i have. Or maybe 9 days if I needed a day off.

“Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t
own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep
it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it
you can never get it back.” – Harvey MacKay

Peace,

Mizi

MBMF: Privilege or Weakness?

Today I was invited as khatib at Jamae Queenstown, a small mosque humbly located at the end of Margeret Drive. For me, it was one of those moments where you reminisce about the good old days. My dad used to bring me there often when I was younger, to attend talks by his Ustaz. As I used to be one of the congregation, it’s hard to believe today that I’m the khatib.

Such ‘pinch-myself-to-see-I’m-awake’ moments have happened numerous times in the past few years. For example, last month, to stand at the mimbar while looking at the Alkaff Kampung Melayu mosque’s congregation, was beyond me. It was a special moment which touched me personally. I grew up in that area, always prayed there when my late grandad was the imam (Ust Hj Mohd Shariff – al-Fatihah). He was a very influential and respected figure at the mosque, the kampung Kaki Bukit community, and our whole family. We call him ‘kiyayi’. Everybody looked up to him. Enough said. I think you get the point. As his grandchild, it was an honour.

Staying on the topic of mosques. Recently, it was announced during the National Day Rally that the Mosque Building and Mendaki Fund (MBMF) contributions will be increased. According to PM Lee, the additional income generated from the increase in MBMF contributions will be used to:

Masjid Alkaff Kampung Melayu

(a) upgrade old and dilapidated mosques;

(b) help dysfunctional families through Mendaki-led programmes and;

(c) improve the madrasah education system in the teaching of secular subjects such as maths and science. 

I’ve got no issues with the increase. In fact, I think the high-earners should be made encouraged to contribute more, (a mere 16 bucks a month won’t burn the pockets of 5-digit earners) provided that good systems are put in place to ensure that positive results are delivered from the 3 main objectives of the fund.

The MBMF got me thinking about a different issue actually. I asked myself the following: are we privileged as a minority to have a government who gives us special advantages in generating funds from the community? or is this a sign and show of weakness that our community is unable to ‘chip-in’ religiously every month for the purpose of mosque building?

I still don’t have an answer yet. But I’ve read many books on personal finance, and I know that getting someOne or someThing to force you to save for something else is an effective way of achieving that goal. Thus, the presence of fixed-deposits, short-term insurance and piggy-banks other financial instruments. 

What do you think? Care to share your views?

“We may need to solve problems not by removing the cause but by designing the way forward even if the cause remains in place.”
Edward de Bono

“As a tither you automatically become solution-oriented rather than problem-oriented.”
Mark Victor Hansen

Have a wonderful weekend!

Warmest regards,

Mizi

The 1st Post

So… as I was saying…. 

After a long break from blogging…Mizi is back. I’ve decided to ‘move’ from blogspot to wordpress as a result of some blogger-friends who preferred and recommended it to me…for various reasons.

Well…Life has been hectic for me in the past year or so. Hectic and busy in a positive kinda way though. And it’s reaching its peak right now. With my current job, my company (which is growing), my wedding (in less than 2 months from now. Yikes!), my speaking invitataions, my family commitments, and my spiritual obligations (Ramadhan is coming), it seems like I’ve got my hands full. Don’t you think?

Yet I am grateful for all the blessings that He has bestowed upon me so far. I’ve lived almost a quarter of a century, and I must say that I have experienced and gained SO much from all the years I had spent in school, from all the friendships/relationships, from all the trials and challenges, the successes as well as the failures. In the pursuit of happiness, humans would normally seek to complete a means that will lead them to the ultimate form of happiness. And this differs from one person to another. You know what I’m talking about right? For some, it’s their career (number of promotions and raises they get from their bosses), for others it’s their family (the amount of quality time they get to spend with their loved ones) etc..By the way, my mum just reached half-a-century recently. I wonder if I’ll ever live that long…hmm

Okay…let’s talk about something else. Last week was the official screening of the 8Minutes film-making competition, and I was honoured to have been invited as one of the resident judges for the 2nd year running. The event was held at Orchard Cineleisure. Below is a movie I’d like to share which won 2nd place. Sit back, and enjoy!

“Life is what happens when you’re busy making excuses”

Yours,

Mizi