I'm Not Always Disappointed

I watched the fireworks from a distance that could be best described as not-too-close and yet not-too-far. Yes, it was nice. But it was all for show.

So, let's get philosophical and pessimistic here. Malaysia, like the fireworks, is all for show. Besides the fact that we have the second (soon to be third) tallest building in the world, as well as other ephemeral billion dollar (not ringgit) symbols of the "Malaysia Boleh" spirit, what else can we boast about?

Our public transport? Education system? Infrastructure? Football team?

We are not world class. At least, not in everything that we claim to be. So stop with the lies. But then again, let the country without sin throw the first bomb stone.

Yet, I'm not always disappointed. At the very least, we do have people who care for our country. Who are bright, intelligent thinkers. Yes, visionaries, if I may call them. There is not a single country in the world that can do without constant reformation. Malaysia is no exception. We seriously need some changes.

But besides the people I've met, known and read or hear about who do provide me some hope, are there other things that give me cause for realistic optimism? Yes. It is hard to deny that Malaysia has gone somewhere since its independence, exactly 50 years ago. And it is hard to deny that we have changed for the better. But while we may have our grievances and grouches with the state of our country, I would say that things will change for the better. They always do.

This is not to say that change (of the good sort) is inevitable, hence we just ought to sit back and relax. Change needs a driver. And I can yell out "You!" right now, but then "You!" means you, and I can't control you.

Perhaps I can only tell you what you should be doing (although at this point it would be "do as I say not as I do", because I do not always live up to my own expectations, hehe). It is, in the end, your choice.

I don't complain. Well, I try not to complain. It's easy to run away from a situation you don't like. It's easy to complain and accept it grudgingly (you may not like it, but at least it doesn't cause you too much discomfort). But complacence is the enemy of change.

Forgive me for my sermon, but alas, this is my blog. Haha. If you've read it, and agree completely to the point of saying "duh!" then great. Do something.

I do believe we have much to thank our present government for. Their most priceless gift, so far, is peace (in the sense of having an absence of war). How many countries yearn for it! Why then, do people come here to work? Why do people come here to holiday, study and do so many other things?

Yet nevertheless, there are many things which we can start changing. I just named a few of our problems in the beginning, but of course there is even more. A lot of people have voice out their concern over the lack of freedom of religion and such things as the New Economic Policy and other racially biased policies and practices.

This is no perfect country, but that is no excuse for not wanting a change for the better.

As I wrote, if you agree, then do something. But if you don't, or haven't really thought about it...well, I hope this makes you think. If only a little. I am concerned and a lot of others are, too. A change for the better wouldn't hurt, right?

Selamat Hari Merdeka.

I Can Hear...

The fireworks already. It's still faaar from midnight. Malaysia is gonna be half a century year old very soon. Everyone is proud.

And no, this is not my Merdeka post. It's coming soon. Hehehe...

Cowboy Bebop

It's back! Anime reviews return, after a brief hiatus. I'll start with this, then more as time permits. Since I'll be having a one month long holiday which begins in a week's time, I will have the opportunity to clear up the huge backlog of unwatched anime (which I refer to as my "burden" hehehe).

Reviewing such a popular (and relatively old) anime such as this will be kinda pointless, right? So, I'll just throw in a few of my thoughts, and call it a review. (I'm not gonna do an intro here, just look at Wikipedia or something. Heh.)

Let's start with the bad parts of it. Firstly, the fact that there is very little continuity between episodes. Of course, this plays to its advantage sometimes, where it can jump to totally new and random stuff. But one gets a little lost, and tired. The plot only gathers up in the last two episodes. Obviously. Even then, the finale is lacklustre; too quick, too brief.

"Life is but a dream" is a common theme, though one gets confused whether characters like Spike (the main protaganist) holds it as metaphor or (ironically) as reality. Regardless, this theme is parroted often and not explained. Oh well.

The nice bits? Yes, there are quite a few. The humor tends to come in the right places, and the action is, well, good. I can only spout words like nice, good and great here. But never awesome or better, because (to me at least), it lingers in a pool of mediocrity that it only seldom gets out of. But when it does get out, it becomes way better.

Many people rate it as one of their best, which I don't get. Then again, people raved on the horrific FLCL, so that's subjectivity for you.

Ron Choong & Project Timothy

My friend invited me, yesterday, to a talk by Ron Choong on Job & The Gospels (at Community Baptist Church, PJ). Actually, it was more of him introducing Project Timothy and also a talk about worldviews and hermeneutics. It was interesting, refreshing and broad.

May I say it certainly challenged the conventions of quite many people there (which Choong said, was the whole point of Project Timothy). Indeed, this guy has done his homework. Hehe.

The exegetical methods and depth of scholarship of Choong (and of course, others, such as Carson, Wright, Witherington etc.) are much needed today. So it's quite sad they are often ignored by (at least) my church, where almost every sermon sounds like a page from a self-help, motivational book with "Jesus Christ", "God" and "The Bible" thrown in. Of course, a whole lot of other churches have similar sounding sermons. But I generalize, certainly.

I can't quite remember what he spoke on about the Gospels (hey, I have a bad memory, hehe), but I do remember how we put the book of Job in fresh perspective- interpreting him as a non-literal person would cast the book in new light. Choong added that the point of Job was about God, not him and his trials and tribulations.

He went on to discuss a few theological debates, such as the ordination of women and homosexuality. If I'm not mistaken, Ron is leans towards the egalitarian view (if so, Tim Keller wouldn't be too pleased, hehehe). He argues against the view that the biblical condemnation of homosexuality is merely cultural by saying that in all instances, the order of creation is referred to.

Which is ironic, because his view of 1 Timothy 2 as "probably cultural" (I paraphrase him slightly here) is somewhat at odds with Paul grounding his prohibition of women having authority in the order of creation. I'm sure, though, he has thought it through well. Hehe...

It was fun (if I may be permitted to describe it thus!) overall, though he didn't attempt (or perhaps forgot) to define the "big words". I had to explain what "epistemic" meant to my friend!

Ah well, this shows all the more the need for such projects.

Would have like to talked to him, especially about his views on creation (his specialty, I gathered), but time didn't permit me. Grrr...

Oh well, another time.

Tschus!

Young Writers Camp 2007

I'm so sorry, I don't have any pictures (or at least any decent ones). For that, I point you to Alicia's, Emily's and Sarah's (warning: Vanity! Hehe) blogs.

Thus, I've got to use some extra words here to compensate for the lack of pictures. Right.

As Ethan put it, this was indeed a trip with more familiar than unfamiliar faces (actually, there were more unfamiliar faces, but the feeling was that of familiarity). The bus came right sharp on (Malaysian) time, and everyone filed in.

So, everyone settled into their cliques right from the start. And me, despite my loathement (if I were to coin such a word, hehe) of cliques, fell into the JPS club who took seats right at the back.

Journey was longer than I imagined. I thought Bukit Tinggi was five minutes away from Genting (which was itself, 45 minutes away from KL, silly me) but it turned out to be longer than I thought.

Anyway, we arrived there and had to trek up a hill, then all the way down. A humorous moment: Jian Eu & co., in their haste to be the first, went up the wrong way at the fork. And me and Ethan, after finding out the right way, were the first to arrrive there. Hehe. As they say, the last shall be the first.

And so we were there. I rushed up to pick a bunk closest to the fan, as per my friend's advice to sleep on the bunk. It was the wisest choice- as I certainly wouldn't want to have a centipede sleeping with me!

The sessions began. We had a star line up of facilitators, from Alvin and Tricia to David and Kim Guat (the author of the Luke & Acts bible knowledge books, I found out to my surprise!). We also had Colin Kirton, from the Footstool Players. There were a few others, and I'm so sorry but I couldn't remember their names. Still, all of them were an inspiration, and the fact that we had such a high facilitator to camper ratio turned out to be extremely helpful.

Oh, and on a slightly sad note, I ruptured my eardrum after jumping from the very, very tempting 8 feet high diving platform there. A few stories about their experiences with it were written about it as well. Let's just say, I fell the wrong way into the swimming pool. Don't worry, it will heal.

David Tan handled a few "Writing to know..." sessions, which were somewhat enlightening, Tricia took us through the blogging sessions and Roshan Thiren (another speaker) brought out the activists in us.

In fact that was the most surprising part of the camp. Everyone became champions, in one short night, of freedom of speech, religion and other issues, such as education and er, sexual education. Okay, I generalize, but the vast majority suddenly became...vocal.

As I remarked to David later, if UMNO politicians were here, they would've cringed at most of what we have said.

"Haha...our nefarious scheme has worked out." he replied.

Oh yeah. The guest writers forums. Sivin Kit, and er...Wong Siew Li (if I'm not mistaken) as well as KJ John. Sivin is from Bangsar Lutheran Church, Siew Li editor of Kairos Magazine and KJ John columnist of Malaysiakini. Heavyweights, if I may so myself.

It was interesting to say the least. I asked Uncle John (as he was called by Tricia) whether he thinks Malaysia can truly be changed. He named a few people...Gandhi, Mandela, Theresa. Yes, people need to stand up. It wasn't easy, no it wasn't. Prayer, perhaps?

After that, I had an interesting discussion with Pastor Sivin. Asked him a few things, and it was really nice to hear from him. I liked how he spoke of us having our "theological journeys". Curious, because I have thought of myself as embarking on a "journey" quite often.

I had another conversation with Darren, this time on Calvinism. Colin Kirton joined in to, and it was quite frustrating, because I didn't have a Bible with me (I wanted to go back to the text). So we ended up having more of a philosophical discussion, which I'm not very good at. Hehe. It was enlightening, and Darren is a brilliant guy (and a year younger than me, at that). And it's good to know people take theology seriously as well.

Oh, did I mention Roshan moved us on to start our on projects to change the world Malaysia? Yes, my group (the Red Writing Hoods) chose to start a blog for youths to write their views (any views about any aspect) of Malaysia. We're looking for those interested to join in. Don't worry, we have a very flexible definition of "youth", but we are looking primarily for contributors whose age has a 1 in front of them. Hehehe...

And another curious incident happened. We were all asked to submit any idea to create change to be pasted onto the wall. As a joke, I submitted an idea for the S.A.D. help group (Sex, Alcohol, Drugs). People took it seriously. Okay, seriously in an unserious kind of way. See an account of the genesis of S.A.D. here.

How could I forget the campsite itself? Gracehill Lodge was a quaint, quiet place, close to nature and far from life. Many say they were inspired by the place, and I'm not surprised. The toilets could've been better though. ;P

And then there was the whole point of the camp, the Writer's Slam, where our writings got critiqued. No, actually, our writings got commented upon by people who would make the most optimistic person sound like a doom sayer, and who could find the faintest prick of a silver lining in a gargantuan fluff of pitch black clouds.

Hehe. Well, maybe I'm too harsh here. But most of the stories were very good. Some people are just way better than me. Oh well. =)

(As for my story, you can check it out here.)

Oh yes, Alvin helmed the Lectio Divina sessions. I found it disappointing though, as he did not instruct us properly how to go about with it. Reflect and let God speak to you is very ambiguous, to say the least. It's not that I have qualms here, but exercises in "What does God say to you?" and "Which particular passage of scripture speaks to you?", while they have their places at times, can sometimes descend into (improper) subjectivism if not clarified properly.

Were there other downsides? Well, Ethan and Jian Eu brought up the fact that the sessions involved more "telling" than "showing" (referencing Colin's session that the goal of a play is to show rather than tell). I think that telling has its place, however, and while some sessions may have been boring, at least they provoked us to some thought. At least, I hope they did.

So this is my two cents on the camp. May have sounded like a school essay, which Ethan has a particular fondness for. If so, then forgive me for my foible here, but great writing always I manage not.

Bye!