25 November, 2006

lesson no 1 : a barbeque party in the rain is not a good idea






Despite the obvious difficulties, we still had fun that night. The food, exhaustively prepared by Zurin, Taufiq, Azlan and Amirul, was abundantly good and abundantly many (they cooked for 30).
Of course, its a shame that only half that number turned up, but we pin that down to the fact that it rained rather heavily just as we fired up the pit (see pictures above).

Nevertheless, it was great getting to meet everyone again for one last time, and educational in more ways than one. To those present that night, thanks again for coming!



the team

Now that the year's schooling has come to an end, it's time for some well-deserved rest. Will be in Cambodia for the most part of next week, insha allah, so don't visit this site too often yea?

22 November, 2006

Dunia dunia dan permainannya

Banyak sekali tipu dayanya

Walau semua maklum sedia

Kenapa tetap aku terpedaya

Dunia dunia dan perhiasannya

Indahnya dilihat mata

Enaknya deria merasa

Walau tahu tak secantik mana

Kenapa masih aku berbangga

Dunia dunia dan janji-janjinya

Tawar kesenangan

Dan keseronokan dan keriangan

Hanya jual kemanusiaan

Walau sedar takkan berkekalan

Tapi aku terus percaya

Jangan tipu aku dunia

Jangan tipu aku dunia

Jangan tipu aku dunia

12 November, 2006

some things just makes you wonder, or worse, worry about the state of today’s youths. Take for example these lyrics from the song “Waiting For The World To Change”, written and performed by John Mayer, taken from his latest album “Continuum”

me and all my friends
we're all misunderstood
they say we stand for nothing and
there's no way we ever could
now we see everything that's going wrong
with the world and those who lead it
we just feel like we don't have the means
to rise above and beat it

he goes on:

it's hard to beat the system
when we're standing at a distance
so we keep waiting
waiting on the world to change

and the chorus - here’s the clincher:

so we keep waiting
waiting on the world to change
we keep on waiting
waiting on the world to change

Something’s just not right here. ‘Waiting’? Just plain ‘waiting’? Waiting for what? Bulan jatuh ke riba? Sorry to say this, but if that’s your idea of a protest song, it’s quite a non-starter isn’t it? Or in parlance you may understand, it’s just lame, geddit?

Go listen to Bob Dylan or something.

To be fair, here’s what the man himself has to say about his song :

“With “Waiting on the World to Change”, Mayer shot for something even more ambitious - something like an attempt to explain his generation’s attitudes about politics. “It’s meant to shed a little light on inactivity and inaction,” he says, “because I don’t believe that inaction is disinterest, I think inaction is preservation – nobody wants to get involved in a debate in which the rules and the facts will change so that they’ll lose. So we end up with this other option, which is, I guess we’ll just have to wait for things to get better.”

what~ever.

07 November, 2006

al-Fatihah for a reformist

I've only met Umar Tan once, and that was on the night of DSAI's release. I did not know much about him then, but I was told he was a remarkable man, a true a person of conviction. Reading through the obituaries, I can only express my increasing awe of the deeds that this humble hamba allah has performed in the struggle for Reformasi in Malaysia. He believed in the cause, and he stucked to it unwaveringly. May Allah have mercy on him and reward him with the eternal gardens of paradise.

innalillahi wa inna ilaihi raji'un
we belong to god, and to him shall be our return

Allahuakbar Allahuakbar Allahuakbar walillahil hamd

Reformasi!

o
bituaries:

Tian Chua
Elizabeth Wong
Faisal mustaffa