progress

you know, sometimes i wonder how much we have actually progressed over these past few years. and going to the new low cost terminal at our airport has given me a whole new perspective on the steel and wood wonder that is KLIA or the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

how much progress have we made, you ask? well, we have traded a short walk on tarmac exposed to mother nature to a half hour train and moving walkway ride. a few glorious drops of rain or rays of sunshine to walking past countless duty free shops eager to recoup the construction costs. a stuffy, cramped, claustorphobic and complex mechanical and hydraulic sky bridge to a simple bridge pushed around by a few blokes in orange overalls. a labyrynth of conveyour belts that manages to spew out your luggage onto a huge rotesserie after another half hour, instead of a simple short and straight belt fed by hand on the other side of the wall with your luggage in five because the plane is just a few metres away.

so this is progression. making things more complex and more expensive because we can. and progressively losing our connectedness with the world around us, and of lifes simplicity.

saying yes

sometimes, people say "yes" not because they agree with you and what you are saying, but because they haven't the slightest clue of what you are going on about...

what really matters

if what REALLy matters are people, family, relationships, spirituality, connectedess with other sentient beings and with nature, love, intimacy, ...

...why am i still chasing ambitions, recogition, experience, knowledge, excitement, ...

...why...?

words

what if we stop using words so much to describe things and beings to ourselves. what if a smiling child is not just a smiling child, but a riot of colours and textures and teeth and eyes and hair and skin. what if we stop "seeing" words, but instead see through them? to the soul and the spirit and the joie de vivre of each smiling child...

hats

and yet, i still harbour dreams of being a superlog...

and that, i guess, says something about human nature...

the lure of the exciting, the adrenaline rush, the recognition (mainly by your own self, not of others)...

wrinkles

elephants dont seem to have any problems at all with wrinkles. they are born with them. wrinkly eyes with enough bags for a weeks shopping. big huge creases up the legs. a trunk patterned with fine little ones. skin thats soft, sensitive, and you guessed, full of wrinkles criss-crossing one another. i'll think of my baby ele next time another wrinkle pops up. if only eh? wrink wrink...

sometimes...

... all it takes is a sincere apology, and all the years of anger and anguish and frustration and animosity would melt into tears that would wash the festering wound clean, and let the healing begin...

Just for You

Though you are not with me

But in my dreams you are always with me

Whenever I see above in the sky

The running clouds seems as they want to meet someone

As I want to meet you

All the colours of the rainbow for you

The first rain of monsoon just for you

All the heavenly best wishes just for you

All the worthful and beautiful things just for you

Pretty butterflies, beautiful flowers, deep blue sky just for you

Don’t think you are alone I’m always with you

(Semenyih)

Jellie Bellie

We almost lost Hovis. Miraculously, after being diagnosed with kidney failure and hovering between this land and the land beyond, he pulled through. And now, he is again scrounging and begging for junk food and pottering around the garden.

But our respite has been brief. Hakim, the orphaned baby elephant that we nursed almost a year back, is about to be put down after breaking both hind legs in a fall whilst being transported.

I don't know which one is worse, really. The excruciating feeling in the stomach that makes you feel sick is most definitely there.

Hakim, if he were to live a normal healthy life, would live to 60 or even 70, and that means he would have most certainly outlive us, and we used to joke that when we are old and rickety, this enormous bull elephant would still suck our thumb like he did when he was only 5 months old. He would have been one of two animals we personally know that would bid us goodbye when we took the big journey.

We fed him, bathed him, cleaned up after him, let him suck our thumb to fall asleep. We would take him out on walks where he would play with the fronds and put everything in his mouth, especially sand. We swam and pushed each other in the lake. And we would fret and worry and sleep next to him when he got sick. We would chase him around the pen with a half full bottle of milk when he naughtily wanted to play and not eat.

This is one elephant that we would love, always. Regardless, even if he grew up to be an angry bull elephant. This must be what parents go through when they lose their sons and daughters.

Aceh Refugee Village in Sepang Torched by Rela during raid at 3am

Posted by: "ADRIAN PEREIRA" banderas_axl@yahoo.com banderas_axl
Tue Aug 1, 2006 10:40 am (PST)
Contact me,Adrian at 0122900756 or banderas_axl@ yahoo.com for immediate and urgent donations of food, clothings,cooking utensils and ect.

Aceh Refugee Village in Sepang Torched by Rela during raid.


The Aceh Refugee village of Kampung Tengah, Sepang was raided and torched by about 100 Rela personal in the early hours of the morning. The incident that took place at 3am on the 30th of July, Sunday effected a peaceful refugee village of around 80 refugees composed of 3 ladies and 77 men.

According to senior villagers, Rela members entered the compound at 3 am with out warning or introduction and startled everyone out of their huts using a loud noise that sounded like a shot gun and with batons pounding on their huts. After being gathered, the senior villager said he was ordered to turn on one of the generators in order to brighten the area which lies inside a rubber plantation on private land. All 80 refugees were then tied in pairs using thin plastic straps and were lead by foot to a bridge (about 1km away) by the main road where 4 trucks awaited. They were not allowed to bring their belongings with them. Meanwhile, it was noted that half of the Rela personal stayed back at the village. He also added that the refugees recognized some of the Rela personal as locals from the neighboring village.

The senior villager continues by saying that he and the other refugees were then brought to a construction area at Sungai Merap in Desa Putra, Sepang where they were met by 4 police personal. Then the police together with the Rela personal started to inspect their documents. It was taken note that out of the 80, 9 were taken into police custody due to not having valid documents. It is understood that 1 out of that 9 did not have documents because he did not have time to get it while being gathered by Rela back at the village. Valid documents refer to the UNHCR refugee Ids and Jabatan Imigresen documents. The rest were later taken back to the trucks and back to the village. While leaving, a Rela personal laughed and joked ke mana kamu nak balik? Little did the refugees know at that time, the Rela members back at the village were torching it. According to the senior villager, they used flame throwers. More than 20 huts were burnt.

When they reached the village, they were shocked to see their huts on fire and some of the Rela members were gathering and were taking away the villagers belongings, bags (some with clothes), merchandise i.e. TVs, DVD players, hand phones and others. They also took all the groceries i.e. rice from the canteen. Two generators were taken too. They even tried to carry away the gas cylinders but it was perhaps too heavy. One gas cylinder was found burnt and luckily it did not explode and injure anyone. All this was done while the refugees were away and as they came back to the village. By then it was too late to salvage anything. Among the items that were destroyed were TVs, wet batteries, cooking utensils, a bicycle and 35 cooking stoves. A total of Rm 4700 in savings which was hidden in one hut was allegedly burnt in the incident.

According to another senior villager, the village is located on private land .They have been staying there for the past 5 years and recently, the land lord, a Malay man had requested them to move in order for him to leash the land out. But he compromised when they agreed to pay rental of Rm 10 per head. A Mr. Azman, an outsider had been assigned by the land lord to collect the rental and has been doing so for the past 4 months. However, it is not clear if Mr. Azman has been paying the land lord the money trusted to him. Money is usually collected from the 60 % of the refugees whom have jobs. Most work in the construction field and some do odd jobs i.e. fixing drains. They earn about Rm35 to Rm40 a day. It is also said that usually, when police drop by for a visit, they only leave a warning not to cause trouble. This is the first time the village is torched.

Mr. Alex Arokiam from the National Office of Human Development (NOHD) said that he has meet the OCPD of Sepang before and they have an understanding that in case a raid is to be carried out, they should beforehand inform NOHD , whom can ensure it will be done in a peaceful manner. Mr. Alex also said that a nearby refugee village, Kampung Limau Manis had also been raided this week but it was done according to proper procedure and it was not torched. This makes the raid on Kampung Tengah very suspicious and could be an illegal raid. NOHD and other NGOs are now trying to gather urgent needed things i.e. food, clothes, cooking equipment, rice and others for the refugees in order for them to continue life with basic necessities and to keep their dignity.


Chronology of events
30th July 2006

3.00am
Rela personal enter village. Refugees hear a loud noise like a gun shot and huts hit with batons to force refugees out.

4.00am
All gathered in dark. Senior refugee asked to turn on generator for light. Refugees tied in pairs.

5.00am
Taken to bridge and transported to Sungai Merap, Desa Putra.

6.00am
Inspection of documents by police and Rela while village torched and looted

6.30am
Taken back to bridge and then village.

7.00am
Reached village to find it burning and being looted.


By
Adrian Pereira:Pusat Komas
Alex Arokiam: National Office of Human Development

Merdeka!

it is the month of august, where, on the 31st, malaysians will once again celebrate the day they gained independence from the british colonials.

a month where malaysians proudly fly their flags on the tops of their roofs, and adorn their cars with smaller versions. a month where tv commercials will once again celebrate the diversity that is malaysia. the sacrifices made by our forefathers for this great nation.

and what better way to celebrate it, than to torch an aceh village down, your neigbours for the past 5 years, in a proud nationalistic display that this is malaysia! we are malaysians! and you are not!

Ashes to Ashes

i am so very used to concrete and steel structures. used to seeing destroyed steel and concrete buildings. the pictures of lebanon and baghdad burning on tv. the houses in banda aceh and paro bay levelled by the tsunami, leaving behind only the concrete foundation and a few twisted reinforced concrete beams.

yesterday, i saw the remains of wood and plastic sheet homes razed to the ground by RELA members. there is NOTHING left, apart from a black square on the bright red laterite ground. a thin layer of ashes the only reminder of people with hearts just as black.

dust to dust

Nationalism

" mereka ketawa bila mereka berkata pada kami yang 'kamu tidak ada rumah untuk balik lagi'"

(they were laughing at us when they told us that "you don't have homes to go back to anymore")

" kenapa kerajaan buat begini kepada kami? mereka juga orang islam, orang melayu. bukan mereka tidak tahu apa yang telah berlaku di aceh. darurat, dan kemudian bencana tsunami"

(why is the government doing this to us? they are also muslims, and malays. its not as if they dont know what has happened in aceh. emergency rule, and then the tsunami)