Mari Belajar Sejarah! / Let's Learn History!

This post is specially written to all my fellow Malaysians who had the privilege of learning Sejarah throughout our five years of Secondary School. Take this as something to ponder about rather than a piece that (might) offend your sensibilities.

Pertaining to the topic at hand, do you remember the reasons you had to study Sejarah for your PMR and SPM examinations? Well, most of us would simply reply "So that we can score an A in them." Yes, if I were asked with that question four or six years ago, my answer would be something of that nature. After finishing my uniform-wearing, perhimpunan-going part of my life I realized that I, and probably most of you, overlooked a small yet immensely important tool used in this subject: bias.

Does that ring a bell to you?

That sub-topic was covered in the first chapter of Sejarah Tingkatan 1 that detailed "his-story" as events that involved certain parties in a certain period of time and bias is the interpretation of the story based on which side you're on e.g. Western Orientalists would label Tok Janggut, who fought against them in the state of Kelantan, as an influential rebel leader while Malaysian historians would depict him as a freedom fighter against the opressive tyranny of the British Empire. Ingat tak?

Although it was passed off as a meaningless and minute part of our Sejarah education (there was no necessity in memorizing it since it won't come out in the exam; remember the spotting culture too?), I realized that it gave a huge bearing on me to be more of an opinionated person rather than just accepting the facts as absolute truths. Thus, my bias on that example given above would be:

"Tok Janggut and his contemporaries actually did it to protect their self-interest. When they were under the Sultanate, they were appointed as statesmen (pembesar) who collected taxes from the people for the Sultan but their powers were usurped when the British came and colonized Malaya. Losing their income and status, the only option was to fight the invaders since they did not get a strong backing from the royalty."

So, who's theory is correct: the westerners', the locals' or mine? Well, that's the beauty of bias; no one opinion should be taken as something total because it allows us the freedom to form our own interpretation of history. Therefore, this has led me to form my own stand on other topics in Malaysian history e.g. the concept of derhaka (treason) against the Sultan made it available for unjust rulers to abuse their power for personal gains thus blind loyalty to the ruler should not be glorified, not to mention countless other issues and controversies the world has to offer.

As for you, start by using this small piece of knowledge to critique our own history rather than just regurgitating all the facts printed in the text book like what we used to do because you will get a clearer sense of the whole picture when you begin examining it from different angles. It's not wrong being neutral but it's right to have your own personal conviction.

Resistance Is Futile: BrokeNCYDE

"1-2, We're coming for you!"

So, while scouring Facebook (again) on a wet and gloomy Wednesday afternoon, I stumbled upon this group that my friend joined called Stop BrokeNCYDE. After doing a quick 10 minute research, I found out that BrokeNCYDE is a 4-piece crunk/rap group hailing from Albuquerque, NM. So, why stop them? Seems that their music sounds like "ear-rape", as one of many music critiques would put it or to be more exact, has "...offensive lyrics, a shallow image, and no actual musicianship." On the other spectrum, one of the defenders of this group said BrokeNCYDE "...CHANGED MY LIFE FOREVER!"

"3-4, Lock your door!"

Heck, even mothers of daughters whom are die-hard fans of this group set up a website, Mothers Against BrokeNCYDE, who wants the organizers of Warped Tour to dump BrokeNCYDE from this year's roster as they cite that this group encourages "racist, sexist, paedophilic and demeaning music that glorifies underage sex, hard drinking and 'getting crunk' and unpatriotic views!" So, where will this controversy lead us to?

"5-6, Suck on my dick!"

Remember the 1950's when Elvis Presley did his dance gyrations on The Milton Berle Show and he was branded as the epitome of the decay of morality among teenagers of that decade? Well, here we go again! Except this time BrokeNCYDE does not bring any cultural or historical importance to the world and their lyrics are "stronger" than Elvis' thinly-veiled metaphor for sex.

I believe that it would be relevant for people to oppose them but since America is a country that believes in freedom of speech, then it would be very hard to justify their means. So far there has not been any cases of teenage girls being gang-raped by guys who did it after listening to one of BrokeNCYDE's songs but if it happened (whether or not they were influenced by BrokeNCYDE), expect this group to be one of the scapegoats.

"BrokeNCYDE will never die!"

What can we do about it, then? Honestly, just do nothing because the stronger you oppose it, people who initially support it will be more loyal and protective towards it. As most of the people who comment on it know, those who like this group are volatile teenagers around the age of 12 to 16 that are still searching for their identity and find that going against their parents bring some sort of personal satisfaction and achievement (been there, done that). So, attempting to ban BrokeNCYDE will make their fans want to sacrifice their lives for the existence and preservation of this group.

To those sensible enough on knowing that this group has bad taste, ignore them. To the mothers worried that their daughters might whore themselves in front of a BrokeNCYDE gig, just keep check of what they listen to. Or better, do a trade-off like "I'll allow you to see Cute Is What We Aim For/other contemporary generic bands that teenagers listen to nowadays on a school night but you have to promise me not to listen to BrokeNCYDE anymore." And...for those who swear in the name of God that they will devote themselves to BrokeNCYDE, I just wanna see if you guys would take the same oath when you're 21.

We're All Slaves Of The Machines

Well, whaddya know. The first decade of the 21st century is coming to a close and one gift that mankind received was the power and beauty of online social networking. To put it into generic terms, Facebook and now Twitter. Good, huh? It just makes the world smaller and smaller; 20 to 30 years ago my mother was so proud to correspond with her pen pal who lived in England and those snail mails, as our generation call it today, took weeks or even months to reach the recipient. But now, at a click of a couple of buttons, you'll know that your friend is currently backpacking in Vienna and is having Rahmschnitzel mit Champignon for lunch! Good, huh? Think again.

We have become absorbed with these cyberspace contraptions that some have chosen it as an end; the first thing that Samantha would do after taking photos at her friend's birthday party is to upload all those photos on Facebook and tag everyone that is on her friends list in order for them to comment on how they look like. Or take for instance Saiful who would Twitter every 10 minutes about the story of his life:

8:50 am - good morning, people! rise n shine
9:00 am - making some scrambled eggs and pancakes for bfast
9:13 am - yum yum
9:25 am - gotta poop. last nite's curry was too hot to handle...

Is that what life has become?

Apparently, it is on the way. More and more people are taking up this "social expert" pill as they are willing to communicate with a larger network of people but at the same time they are slowly sacrificing precious face-to-face interactions with their friends, colleagues and perhaps family. It would be easier doing it online, isn't it? Of course these sites are an excellent way to keep in touch with those who are far away from you like my family back in Malaysia or my Australian cousins but I don't see the point of writing on your friend's wall who lives in the same apartment block as you do since you could just go to your friend's place and have a proper, meaningful chat.

As of the time of typing, I am on my Facebook account to check people's updates on what's going on in their life. Yes, I'm still an addict who would just refuse to click that "Logout" button till I am satisfied with all those (almost) meaningless information on other people's lives. But slowly I'm restraining myself from mercilessly commenting on other people's post (nowadays it seems you can comment on anything!) & abstaining from those dreaded quizzes that others are so fond of. I only interact by writing on people's wall or by sending them a message & limit the number of photo albums in my profile. Call me a control freak but that's the best way to curb my enthusiasm on it.

As for you, try as much as you can to not make it as part of your life. I know it's very hard but there's more to life than being consumed by it. Be as much as independent from this technology because you don't want to be slaves of the machines, do you?

Summer '09: Backpacking America (Part II)

Hello again. After filling my last five days watching 1940's American noir movies (Humphrey Bogart is the coolest actor of his time; he gets the ladies twice as fast as James Bond could), it is high time for me to continue on my tales during my travels.

Free Spirit
One of the many quirks that singles me out from the rest of my friends is my liking on traveling alone. Words that would come out of their mouth upon hearing that I'm going solo include "Wouldn't it be boring traveling all these places all by yourself?", "Wouldn't it be kind of dangerous; what if something happens to you?" and my favorite, "Ko gila ke?"

Well, my first dose of this kind of travel actually happened on a cold December night at England. I was at London for 12 days with my friend and his family during my school holidays & while walking around Tottenham Court Road, I stumbled upon this booth selling concert tickets and one my favorites during that time (2004) was The Darkness was performing at Wembley Arena. Since my pal wasn't interested, I decided to head to Wembley all by myself.

After the concert ended around 10 pm, I took the bus from the arena to Wembley Central and passed by ghettoes upon ghettoes of outer London which are creepy and dodgy at night. Anything you thought that could go wrong might just happen. I had to get off at a stop to transfer buses that'll take me to the city and whaddya know, behind the bus stop was a cemetery! I don't know how or why but I didn't feel scared a bit.I got on the second bus, passing more ghettoes, eventually reaching home safe & sound. So, I thought to myself: why not I do this more often? Of course it has its risks but its all fun!

Back to that favorite question, I answer "Yes. Aku gila." Since I had survived that episode when I was only 16 years of age, then of course its worth a shot doing it again someplace else. Well, since I've already grown-up to the "old enough" age of 21, I've gotten less daring and more philosophical about it. I see myself as a lone ranger who travels from town to town just wanting to grab the juice of knowledge out of that place; meanwhile, I'll befriend other traveling compadres and just hang out with them till my time has come. Once the bottle of juice is full & everyone parts with smiling goodbyes, I'll just move on to the next joint. Pardon the Wild West pun, I was thinking of Sergio Leone's The Good, The Bad & The Ugly while doing this post.

And yes! It's true; New Orleans was the best time of my life. The hostel had a great atmosphere where people can lepak and just have a chat and it even culminated to a get together of mostly strangers and acquaintances from all around the world (dominated by Brits, they seem to be everywhere!) and we headed out to Frenchman St to check out the scene over there for a crazy Memorial Day weekend night-out. On another occasion, our group consisted of a couple of Germans and Dutch with a Canadian, an(other) English, a Danish and me, a Malaysian. Talk about multicultural!

There are a lot of untold (not untold really, just don't wanna bore you) benefits of traveling as a free spirit other than forming a web of networks with people from around the world. I'm not gonna force you on doing it but if you get the chance, try it once. At least for a short trip. An unexpected twist to your adventure or a wacky compadre could just etch an everlasting memory to your mind.

Summer '09: Backpacking America (Part I)

Greetings people of cyberspace. I have recently completed my 29-day journey of Austin, San Antonio, New Orleans and Pittsburgh and am safely back in rural central Pennsyvlania that is of State College. This serialized post would not be a detailed experience of what I did throughout my trip but what I learned as I skipped from city to city.

Stereotyping Stereotypes

Before we begin, if I say the word "Texas" what would be the first things to come to your mind? My guess would be cowboys, desert, George W. Bush & rednecks. Thanks to television and the silver screen all of us just simply know how a typical Texan look like: a gun-toting, horse-riding, take-no-for-an-answer, tough guy. Well, my experience at Austin seemed to disprove any stereotype I had before. One of my acquantainces whom I met during my travels told me that "Austin is a liberal oasis smacked in the middle of a huge conservative desert." How true he is.

Throughout my five days at Austin, I didn't see anyone wearing full cowboy gear except the occasional hat & contrary to the fact, people over there do not speak with a Southern accent. If you were to meet an Austinite in any other state, you wouldn't have guessed that person to be from Texas. It was only during my second last night at Austin that I finally savored the accent from a waitress at a Mexican restaurant at SoCo but there was still a suspicion that she might come from Oklahoma or Alabama.

Besides that, people over there are very friendly (think Southern hospitality) and modern; one example would be while I was paying for my falafel at Whole Foods Market, a quite high-end supermarket that sells local and organic food, the cashier had a chat with me about my t-shirt which portrayed the post-rock band Explosions In The Sky and when we shifted to the topic of music festivals in America, he told me he had been to Coachella six times! Really made me felt like a rookie.

Fat Americans
Another stereotype that citizens of other nations like to make fun about or to express disgust is Americans are a bunch of fat and lazy sods. True. BUT this premise only holds in the southern states. I was quite shocked to see a proportional number of fat people at Austin, San Antonio & New Orleans as compared to when I went to Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and New York City; one glaring reason for this apparent quantity of large people per square mile is down to their diet.

Food in the south is the best that you can get: steaks are in abundance, hence making it their staple and almost everything that can be deep-fried will be deep-fried while up north people tend to be more health conscious and have more variety to choose from. However, the media would spin it around and generalize that all Americans are overweight. This is a hasty surmise since their diet has already become part of their lifestyle and as far as economics is concerned, demand would not diminish as long as there is cheap supply.

Summer '09: Rockin' Around The Eastern Seaboard

Yes, this is a self-indulgent list about the bands I will be catching this summer since I'm one of the few remaining not to go back to Malaysia (bold indicates not confirmed yet).

5/30 - Coldplay @ Post-Gazette Pavilion, Burgettstown, PA
6/05 - The Black Keys @ Point State Park, Pittsburgh, PA
6/06 - Zee Avi @ Point State Park, Pittsburgh, PA
6/22 - Camera Obscura @ TLA, Philadelphia, PA
6/30 - Explosions In The Sky @ Central Park, New York, NY
7/17 - Warped Tour @ Susquehanna Bank Center, Camden, NJ
7/21 - Green Day @ Wachovia Spectrum, Philadelphia, PA
7/31 - All Points West @ Liberty State Park, Jersey City, NJ
8/12 - Blink 182 @ Hershey Pavilion, Hershey, PA

Here's to a long summer!

Danial's Alternative Summer

Well well, spring semester has ended & three months of summer beckons! So, besides going back home (for most of my peers), going backpacking and concerts (me) I have decided to compile a list of crazy, Jackass-approved things to do to fill my boredom when in State College. Because eventually I'll run out of money traveling, right?

1. DIY Summer Sauna - close all doors, windows and any means of ventilation in your bedroom and set your heater to its maximum temperature. Let it steam for 10 minutes and enter this "homemade sauna" with your friends. Last man standing wins!
2. Molotov Poop - Fill a paper or a plastic bag with poop (any source will do ut I heard human feces has the best flammability) and light the bag on fire. Throw it to any object you desire & be proud that your waste might grab the attention of the fire brigade.
3. Semen Shoes - When you feel the need to discharge your "little you's", do it in a friend's shoes! But make sure your friend wears the shoe/s before it dries or you have to do it again.
4. TV Is Bad For You - so, buy some hammers, perhaps even a saw, and trash the television out of the living hell. If you're not done with it, you can throw it off the sixth floor of your apartment building. Still not satisfied? You can always couple it with the Molotov Poop and see the idiot box melt in flames.
5. Fecal Fridge - Oh, don't we just love poop? Something learned from watching too many episodes of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia (told ya TV was bad) is poop IS fun. So, why not pass motion into a tupperware and store it in your friend's fridge? By that way, everyone can enjoy the fun (and poop)!
6. Winter In Summer - In line with being crazy, why not wear full winter clothing during mid-July when the sun is ablaze and wearing less clothes is better? Do it with your friends as a competition to see who can survive winter....in summer!
7. America Runs On Dunkin' - Taking advantage that Dunkin' Donuts is one of the few food joints that operates 24 hours, try hanging out there for a day! You know, chatting with your friends, using the store's internet bandwidth, consuming ridiculous amounts of caffeine & taking naps. If possible, try bunking in for more than a day & see when will the manager kicks you out.
   
8. Treasure Hunting - Shiver me timbers! End of Spring semester is when the seniors move out to the real world & when we get to sieve through their unwanted trash that are like a chest of gold to us. As of now, I've gotten a coffee table and looking for a disco ball and a rattlesnake for my new apartment.
   

Since it's just the beginning of a very long holiday, this list will be updated from time to time. Stay tuned!

The Enigma of Allen Park: A Difference in Socialization

Disclaimer: This article expresses the opinion of the author and does not represent anyone or any group whatsoever; this is a theoretical explanation of group dynamics and should not be misunderstood as means of personally attacking any parties. Any ideas and comments, either supportive or dismissive, are highly encouraged BUT sensitive and offensive posts will be banned.

It has been brought to my knowledge that the residents of Allen Park are seen as a “unique” bunch whereby a number of us prefer not to mix with the rest of the Malaysian community at State College during group activities or gatherings which was expected of us and this has caused some to question our behavior.

I would like to offer a theory based on the concept of socialization i.e. the process whereby a culture teaches its members about its beliefs, customs, habits and language (Kenrick, Neuberg & Cialdini, 2007). In this context, it refers to how our sophomore/junior batch was socialized in comparison to the current freshmen batch and this feature is telling since both batches came from the same learning institution in Malaysia.

The prominent factor that distinguishes the socialization of these two batches is the time spent learning in Malaysia: due to the nature of the program, the people of Allen Park had an extra year of college than the freshmen. This extra year gave everyone from the same batch time to know their peers and form bonds of friendship with each other; most of the residents here are in the same major not to mention were classmates and even roommates!

This familiarity has led us to increase our circle of friends and to trust members of our own group to provide social support, diminishing the need to seek help from people from their out-group. Besides that, our batch came in a large number and all lived in the same apartment complex far from campus (approx. 1.2 km to downtown) which contributes to us more willing to invest and share our material and emotional resources among each other.

In contrast, the freshmen had one year of study in Malaysia and based on my experience, this time frame was not enough for me to know all my batch mates. So, upon arriving to this university, they are more open and receptive to make new friends among Malaysians other than the local and international community in the area.

In conclusion, as time passes by, more and more residents of Allen Park have established a relationship with other Malaysians at Penn State while those who remain to be exclusive should be respected for their decision since they feel that they can be independent and survive on their own. Well, there would not be “Allen Park” anymore since many of us choose to go our own way and will be scattered around State College come next fall.

Facebook Quizzes: Harmless Fun or Tools of Commercialism?

Recently, my Facebook news feed has been inundated with these mysterious quizzes where they would ask "What type of politician are you?", "At what age will you have children?", "How good are you in Kelantanese?" etc. Well, I've tried one of them (I got Lim Kit Siang; someone who wants liberte, equalite, fraternite, no?) and I saw that now, you can actually make your own quiz! Well, how nifty is that?

It's not. And here's why.

Right from when this application was packaged, distributed and pushed to everyone's news feed, it has now become a cyberspace drug of epic proportions, being the filler of a Facebook junkie's boredom. Once you tried one and got the high from the results which was in your favor, you decide to shoot up another one. And another one. And another. Not contented, you decide to allow the application to post your results on everyone's news feed, letting them know of the availability of this drug. Still not contented, you move on to another variation of the drug. And repeat.

Alright. Enough with the metaphore. Here's the lowdown.

Once you click on a quiz, this will show up e.g.

Allowing Kuiz Tatabahasa Kedah! to access will let it pull your profile information, photos, your friends' info, and other content that it requires to work.

You have now made a commitment to let the application use all your personal information on your Facebook account AND your network of friends so it can "work." Hmm, wonder what that means? So, ignoring this stupid request you press Allow.

Now, it's quiz time! But wait, before you begin clicking on the answers look around the page. If you notice on the top, bottom and right side of the quiz there are other "clickable" links asking, begging & persuading you to join their test, quiz or game. But being the addicted, ahem, I mean committed quiz taker you are, you would continue to finish the quiz and can't wait to get the exciting results that you wanna share with your pals!

In reality, you have just become a tool of Facebook for them to maximize their profits; they are aware that by promoting these quizzes & also letting their users (yup, that's you and me) create their own quizzes, they can increase the number of their web pages to post advertisements. Since Facebook is a free social networking site, advertisements and commercials are the primary, if not only, source of revenue for them. Thus, the more popular and highly accessed a quiz is, the more advertisers would want to pay for the page & the richer Facebook gets!

So, I offer you two options:

1. Stop being Facebook's cash cow! Ignore those quizzes, hide them from your news feed & encourage your friends not to take it. And since they're applications you can delete it from your profile by simply go to "Settings" --> "Application Settings" and click those "X"s on the right. Prevent Facebook from using your profile as an ATM machine!
   
2. Ignore & deride everything I said and continue to gleefully do the "What type of flower are you?" and "Are you stupid?" knowing that Mark Zuckerberg, billionaire CEO of Facebook, is laughing all the way to the bank.
   

I'm Not Romantic But A Romantic

I have an admission to make: I am a romantic.

No, not that kind of being mushy-lovey-dovey-buy-presents-always-call-and-say-I-love-you-to-your-partner romantic. I'm the "other" type: the one who sees-something-as-nostalgic-&-god-damn-beautiful-and-sets-out-to-do-it romantic! Still not getting the drift?

Okay, here's an example. My Malaysian peers way of traveling is to go on road trips where they'd plan out multiple places to go and head out to each place, one by one. The upside of this type of travel is that you can cover a lot of places in a certain amount of time while the downside is that you can only spend a limited amount of time at a particular place then you have to move on to your next stop (unless you have wads of cash and lots of free time, that is) besides being susceptible to unavoidable fuck-ups which could cut short your tour.

In contrast, my method of traveling is backpacking to a certain city or town and bunking out there for 5-7 days before moving on. Now the romantic part is when I'm there, I want to immerse myself in the soul and culture of that place until I know (almost) every nook and cranny of the place. It's more than just buying a fridge magnet or key chain to show you've been there, it's trying to become a part of the city, even a teeny-weenie bit of it.

Another example which has some connection close to home (meaning my tanah tumpahnya darahku, Malaysia) is my insistence on taking the bus to travel rather than driving a car although the cost of riding the former ($30 to $40 one-way to Philadelphia) would be more costly than the latter. As a self-proclaimed romantic, taking the bus reminds me of riding the express bus heading back to my hometown, Kuantan, when I was in Malaysia. Taking the slow KTM commuter & LRT trains from my campus at Shah Alam to the bus station at Jalan Pekeliling then straight away bought a ticket for RM 16.90 (around $5.00 at current exchange rate) and always, always, always went for either Plusliner, MARA Liner or Bulan Restu which was way comfortable and faster than the gobshite Transnasional.

Next, I had to wait under the bus stop which had only two fans capable of giving little room for a breather as long I was shielded from the hot and sweaty tropical climate. So, taking the bus to-and-fro Philadelphia reminds me of my going back home where I have time to see the sceneries (Pennsylvania has livestock farms while Pahang has oil palm plantations) and just reflect on whatever I wanna reflect on. Read a book. Listen to music. Or just take a nap. When I've finally arrived, I felt a sense of rejuvenation and elation of going through a long physical and spiritual journey to reach home. Sweet home.

Told ya I was a romantic! =P