In less than two months, Malaysia will celebrate 50 years of Independence from the British. I had the good fortune to get a few freelance jobs writing articles related to the Independence and in the course of my online research, stumbled upon this blog-tag: 50 Posts to Independence.
Quite an eye-opening blog-tag and I'm glad they wrote it.
I've never been one much interested in matters relating to politics. The very word makes my skin crawl. But if you're talking about human rights, tolerance, hopes and aspirations - anything that smells kosher and comes sincerely from hearts with pure intentions - then I'll read it. I haven't finished reading all of the posts in this blog-tag, but most of what I've read so far rings true, sincere and has left an impression in me. A new impression of what this country is, what it must have been like back then when we got our Independence, and what I hope (fear) it will be in the future.
I have no kids to worry about. I'm one of those selfish lots who are still struggling to overcome my ego-centricity and self-obsession. If I had kids I'd probably share the same concerns as this blog-tagger participant.
But at least one thing that all the blogs have in common is that all of them profess their love for the country. Maybe there's more to love about the country than meets the eye?
I've wondered, these past few months that I've been gainfully unemployed, if I've not turned into a disgustingly ungrateful human being. I've so much to be thankful for, yet most of my idle hours are spent worrying over things I don't yet have, or those that are not going the way I want them to. I've become quite possessed with things I don't have that I've grown unappreciative of things that I do. I'm not saying that these bloggers are ungrateful, negative, self-indulgent brats. None of them sound like one (of course, I've yet to finish reading all the blogs), and I'd be the best candidate to zero-in on one (takes one to know one).
Anyway, back to self-obsessed me. The Law of Attraction dictates that we ought to keep positive thoughts about this country (or anything else for that matter) so that good things will happen. So I tend to just quickly skim the overly negative paragraphs in blogs (I don't read the local newspapers at all these days, except maybe the Star weekender) and mull over the more positive ones. Keeps me sane.
It's disappointing when you have your rose-coloured glass removed from your line of sight. At 35 you'd have thought I've had all these glasses removed *sigh* but have always been a late bloomer. But that's the whole point of it after all, isn't it? To let us discover & realise the truth, no matter how unpalatable and depressing it is, and form our own opinions about it (hopefully mostly positive, constructive & pragmatic as opposed to negative, bitter and draining).
The other thing I notice when I read blogs that comments on the country, the government, the people is that very few make suggestions on how to improve the *insert dire issue debated here* problem. It's easy to criticise and voice one's displeasure at how things are, but for common folks like me, who's as clueless about most things as the next Minah-late-bloomer-whoseprimary&tertiaryeducationhasrenderedusunabletothinkforourselves(notmuchanyway) , we need some inspiration/hint/guidance/suggestion to re-calibrate our train of thoughts and point us in the right direction with regards to that *insert dire issue debated here* problem.
I had a nagging suspicion, as I was going through the various blogs, that just plain-old criticism does little except to raise discontent in the readers. And what's the point in that, at the end of the day? If the point is for readers to take action, it would be helpful if one could point exactly what that 'action' would be. Write to the Wakil Rakyat? Rally our friends to sign petitions? Publish articles to raise public awareness of the issue? What... WHAT?
I came across this website called CitizenThinkTank that seems like it might be something worth checking out. Haven't really signed up for it yet. Haven't done a lot of things I've been planning to do. Been distracted with oh-so-many-things (read: procrastinating). Are there other similar efforts out there, for the benefit of Malaysia & Malaysians? I'd sure love to know.
*sigh* well enough rambling. I'll finish reading the 50 Posts to Independence blogs tomorrow. Right now, it's bedtime. Goodnight Malaysia.
Quite an eye-opening blog-tag and I'm glad they wrote it.
I've never been one much interested in matters relating to politics. The very word makes my skin crawl. But if you're talking about human rights, tolerance, hopes and aspirations - anything that smells kosher and comes sincerely from hearts with pure intentions - then I'll read it. I haven't finished reading all of the posts in this blog-tag, but most of what I've read so far rings true, sincere and has left an impression in me. A new impression of what this country is, what it must have been like back then when we got our Independence, and what I hope (fear) it will be in the future.
I have no kids to worry about. I'm one of those selfish lots who are still struggling to overcome my ego-centricity and self-obsession. If I had kids I'd probably share the same concerns as this blog-tagger participant.
But at least one thing that all the blogs have in common is that all of them profess their love for the country. Maybe there's more to love about the country than meets the eye?
I've wondered, these past few months that I've been gainfully unemployed, if I've not turned into a disgustingly ungrateful human being. I've so much to be thankful for, yet most of my idle hours are spent worrying over things I don't yet have, or those that are not going the way I want them to. I've become quite possessed with things I don't have that I've grown unappreciative of things that I do. I'm not saying that these bloggers are ungrateful, negative, self-indulgent brats. None of them sound like one (of course, I've yet to finish reading all the blogs), and I'd be the best candidate to zero-in on one (takes one to know one).
Anyway, back to self-obsessed me. The Law of Attraction dictates that we ought to keep positive thoughts about this country (or anything else for that matter) so that good things will happen. So I tend to just quickly skim the overly negative paragraphs in blogs (I don't read the local newspapers at all these days, except maybe the Star weekender) and mull over the more positive ones. Keeps me sane.
It's disappointing when you have your rose-coloured glass removed from your line of sight. At 35 you'd have thought I've had all these glasses removed *sigh* but have always been a late bloomer. But that's the whole point of it after all, isn't it? To let us discover & realise the truth, no matter how unpalatable and depressing it is, and form our own opinions about it (hopefully mostly positive, constructive & pragmatic as opposed to negative, bitter and draining).
The other thing I notice when I read blogs that comments on the country, the government, the people is that very few make suggestions on how to improve the *insert dire issue debated here* problem. It's easy to criticise and voice one's displeasure at how things are, but for common folks like me, who's as clueless about most things as the next Minah-late-bloomer-whoseprimary&tertiaryeducationhasrenderedusunabletothinkforourselves(notmuchanyway) , we need some inspiration/hint/guidance/suggestion to re-calibrate our train of thoughts and point us in the right direction with regards to that *insert dire issue debated here* problem.
I had a nagging suspicion, as I was going through the various blogs, that just plain-old criticism does little except to raise discontent in the readers. And what's the point in that, at the end of the day? If the point is for readers to take action, it would be helpful if one could point exactly what that 'action' would be. Write to the Wakil Rakyat? Rally our friends to sign petitions? Publish articles to raise public awareness of the issue? What... WHAT?
I came across this website called CitizenThinkTank that seems like it might be something worth checking out. Haven't really signed up for it yet. Haven't done a lot of things I've been planning to do. Been distracted with oh-so-many-things (read: procrastinating). Are there other similar efforts out there, for the benefit of Malaysia & Malaysians? I'd sure love to know.
*sigh* well enough rambling. I'll finish reading the 50 Posts to Independence blogs tomorrow. Right now, it's bedtime. Goodnight Malaysia.
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