Everything

I remember one balmy day when my family and I went to this restaurant in Kampung Attap for lunch and one lady came to us with her tot on the shoulder asking for food. I could tell that they are Burmese, to be specific Rohingya people. They seemed helpless and hungry so we invited them to have lunch together but the mother refused. She wanted some money to buy foods and she will bring back the foods to the shelter where the other three kids were waiting and staying temporarily. So I assisted her to the foods counter and let her chose what she wanted. It was really heartbreaking to see a mountain of rice only swamp with plain watery curry and divided to four portions. I did the calculation myself and asked her whether it was enough for the family. She answered, “Alhamdulillah.” At the cashier where I was paying for the foods, she suddenly removed her bracelet and put it into my palm. “Terima kasih.” I was shocked and returned it back to her. “Tak perlu. Saya sedekah.” I could see the ...

Assalamualaikum wbt. One of the most striking features about the sort of lives nature has bestowed upon us and it is our ability to influence a certain number of events to go rather as we wish; rather than as we do not wish. The influence we have, when we are honest to ourselves about this, it is very partial. For a start, no past event is within our power to influence, and of all those events that might realistically be supposed to happen in the next few minutes, not very many of them are written in my power to bring about, or not bring about; as I choose. Fortunately, some are. Whether or not I drink my coffee now, or let it go cold, it is up to me. If I am on a journey, whether I turn left or whether I turn right at a particular junction, is up to me. Most people do not give this fact about our experience very much thought, we can influence events that mostly we have no call to think about this fundamental function of human life. Obviously we think about the choices, which ...

I am back. Ironically; some people generally say they don't like to lie and sometimes feel guilty or bad about lying, though they do it, while feeling angry and betrayed when others lie to them. Yet they commonly feel their own lies are justified or appropriate. In fact, these some people sometimes feel proud of certain lies. Ugh! Lying is fundamentally wrong. Everyone would generally acknowledge that. Though many people have this relativistic ethic, making it is okay to lie to certain groups of people or under certain circumstances which they label "little white lies" or "bohong sunat". I feel a great deal of contempt for the lie. My style is to want and to get everything out in the open, and to confront things I feel aren't true (which truth is I don't want to do the confrontation because I'm sucks at it). I know confrontation upsets a lot of people. They don't like to look at the truth. But I much prefer getting everything out in ...