Soooo Kampung!!!

It just grates me the wrong way whenever I hear anyone, just anyone, spew out verbal diarrhoea using the sacred word (to me) "kampung" in a degratory manner or tone. You know, the seemingly "harmless" expression of "the way she dresses is soooo kampung" or " where do you think you are, in the kampung" or "her make-up soooo kampung" or "the way she/he talks is soooo kampung" ....

Often times whenever I hear this being expressed in a conversation, I often pondered which kampung the speaker ( or his keturunan) hails from. I am 2nd generation urbanite, my grandparents were born and bred and lived and died in our kampung, Masjid Tanah(Melaka).
Due to work, my parents (born and bred in their kampung) lived around the peninsula but mainly in KL where I was raised. They retired to live in the kampung and I have not seen a more contented couple as far as lifestyle goes as their needs are simple , besides they enjoy being landowners and being close to tempat tumpah darah. They took their turns to being village elders, and in our kampung, village elders are highly regarded and respected, no matter who they are and no matter who you are in a KL-urban society. I am proud to say quite a number of my mapung folks have "made good" and still maintain their ties to the kampung. How can one forget where the other end of one's umbilical cord was once attached?

Most people these days do not have a kampung per se, their forebears may have long participated in the urban migration of days of yore, never to return, for reason of vocation or convenience. That is fine. Create a new kampung, if you may, KL being a global kampung full of migrants ( including the expatriate and pendatang kind), but never forget where it all began.

Just because their postal address is now in a prime property area code( never mind how they got there) and driving wheels that can pay for a complete row of single storey terrace houses(again never mind how they got them), they think that it qualifies them to look down on people who chose to live away from it all. I thought with the new breed of technopreneurs and agropreneurs choosing to make kampungs their base, the perception of the public at large would change.

It irks me to read in the papers lately a disgusting article about how someone was putting down some people who chose to litter in their squatter-like surroundings that they ought to behave because they are no longer in their kampung. If they want to live in the city they need to behave like "city people". What the.....? Won't a simple " Please take pride surroundings and keep your environment clean so that it is healthier, blah, blah ,," be better advice? Was the insult to kanpung people absolutely necessary? And do "city" people really deserve the accolades and pedestal they are always being perched on? By the ignoramus!

And how are "city" people? Who are the "city" people? How are they different from "kampung" people? For someone in that person's position and role, I would expect him to use more discretion when blurping out statements like that. I would ask him if he has been to a kampung, a real kampung where important values (neighbourliness, sense of community, respect, caring and sharing) are still very much alive and practiced. Cleanliness is without doubt high on their list, why even the elderly sweep their compunds for exercise, now that they don't have to go rubber tapping or padi planting anymore as contract labour can handle all that. Even when taken-for-granted city conveniences are absent like Alam Flora or Indah Water, the kampung folks get by and create their own garbage disposal system (burning or burying). So, how are kampung people dirty and unruly?

And if the city folks are sooooo nice and good, why do we keep getting ugly news of happenings in the so,so, fine towns and cities? Corruption, murder, abduction, blackmail and so on - is that something rampant in the kampungs? Would a child playing alone in a kampung playground be abducted? I have not heard.

Anyone can behave in a backward manner, whether they are in the city or in a kampung. It is all a question of breeding and civic mindedness. I live all my life in the city but touch base with life in the kampung at least 20 times a year. In fact in 2005/6 I lived for a full year in my kampung and I have found nothing to complain about the kampung folks. Only perhaps they need to be more aggressive in sounding out and getting their local needs met by their elected representatives ( who perhaps have to give way to the needs of those in the city?). My kampung folks are clean and God-fearing. Yes they are human and do have their minor failings here and there but do they deserve to be compared to those vagrants in the city who live like pigs in their messy environment? I don't think so.

I remember having to politely tell off the driver of a BMW, a very "city" gentleman from the way he was dressed. He stopped his car within my residential area, which is next door to his, in neighbouring Damansara Heights. His kids were playing in the playground and he, wife and 2 smaller tots were waiting in the car. They were drinking coca cola from cans while munching on groundnuts and pistachios. I passed them while I was on my evening walk. On my way back, it was just my ( or was it their) unfortunate luck that I saw "Daddy" and "Mummy" doing a synchronised act of treating MY neighbourhood like a rubbish dump. "Mummy" was flinging out a plastic bag full of peanut and pistachio shells onto the roadside from her side of the car window, and "Daddy" was playfully aiming at the trees across the road and hurling empty coke cans from his side of the window! And the little tots were watching, gleefully. What the ......!!

Because I caught them in the act, and there were many others who were around waiting for their kids too, I was bold enough to approach their car and asked them with a friendly smile if they live around here and if so, which Jalan? They were surprised that I approached them and said they live behind the hill ( Damansara Heights). I told a white lie and said that I am with the resident's association and we have been wondering who has been littering our playground and residential area. That it was also my job to educate the people found doing so to stop doing so, and if they could kindly not do that again. There were ( and still are) garbage bins placed at strategic locations for the convenience of the children patronising the playground.

The redfaced couple of course apologised and said they did not see the bins. At which point I wanted to say well, you could darn well bring them home to dump them in your own, couldn't you? That is exactly what my kampung folks would have done as they would think twice about simply littering anywhere knowing that it might be their neighbours who have to clean up?

So, tell me again....is it fair to insult kampung folks?

The Golden Age-Happy Birthday A!

Mummy says to Maleeya: "That's right darling....life is a bowl of cherries.....you enjoy the juicy bits but you will need to spit out the pips. Swallowing them whole is not good for your system.."
(On her 2nd birthday. You were there remember, A?)

May 21, 2007

Happy Birthday, A!

Happy Golden Birthday!

You deserve to be among friends and loved ones today but nobody seems to know where you are. You did mention that you wanted to go AWOL/MIA but I didn't think you were serious. You turned off your mobile and we did not get a response from our text messages. Where are you, birthday gal?

Turning 50 is a golden landmark, at least that's what I thought when I turned "golden" a couple of years ago. And I would imagine you would want to celebrate it with loved ones and close friends.

I did, and although there was no big bang party that might require Bomba to put out the 50 candles, a cosy home affair with a little pulut kuning and accompaniments and the must-have birthday cake that my dad insisted on created just the right cosy atmosphere. So there I was right at home, and friends and family who remembered dropped by the house, even until late, and nobody made a fuss that there was no splashing birthday party. I had a great time even though it was very different from what I had planned years ago. The plan years ago was for a few of us turning 50 in the same year to make a trip to Hawaii (if married, sans spouse) to let our hair down at the site of Hawaii Five O. Only 50 somethings would remember the Hawaii Five O programme on t.v. many years ago.

Whatever your reasons are for disappearing today and leaving all of us, your siblings and your close buddies guessing where you are, those reasons must be good and valid. And justified, I suppose. But you will need to explain it to me so I can understand. I am guessing that you might be with your son, or perhaps with your daughter. But why is it necessary to be so secretive?

Since you are not here today and if you are browsing my blog journal, I am hoping that you will hop over to this one to claim your birthday greetings from me. I am wishing you a very happy ulang tahun and may the last 50 years serve you well over the next 50. May all your remaining dreams come true and that your kindness to me and my family be rewarded by the Almighty in this lifetime and the here after and that you will be looked after really well.

You are one of the most resilient persons that I have been priviledged to know. You probably think I have been a good shoulder to lean on and a great listener, but if you must know, you did me a greater favour than what you think I am doing for you. I learnt a lot about being resilient, about being strong and about never giving up against all odds just by being your friend and confidante. And I hope we will continue to be friends for a long time to come and that we can all be around for me to wish you another year of good health and cheer.

Again, Happy Birthday and Many Happy Returns. May all your dreams come true and you live to a ripe, mature age in good health and filled with all the happiness you deserve.

Lots of Love,

Azmi (and babies + Blackie)

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

p.s. Just so you know, we have a cake for you and I had managed to get 5 sticks of extra long "sparklers" (bunga api-remember the movie Autumn(or was it Winter)in New York) to light up the cake. We will freeze the cake and light it up whenever you are ready to make an appearance. Do make contact with me or your siblings, if possible before my 3rd chemo on May 24.....you said you would pick me up from the medical center remember? If you take too long to make an appearance, the cake may also do a disappearing act.....you know me and my sweet tooth....!

Life - Simple or Complicated?

Someone e-mailed me the following story:
Quote:
A group of alumni, highly successful and established in their careers, got together to visit their old University lecturer. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the lecturer went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, some plain looking and some expensive and exquisite, inviting them to help themselves to hot coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the lecturer said: "If you noticed, all the nice-looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the better cups and are now eyeing each other's cups"

"Now if Life is coffee, then the jobs, money, possessions and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn't change. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it."

Life is really about enjoying the coffee and not let the cup drive you.

Unquote:

Hmmmm, simple but profound yes?

For me, at this moment in time, this is beautifully illustrated right at our doorstep.

I am simply awed by the Royal Wedding in Perak. Just think about it, the couple could have the most lavish fairy tale wedding ever, a highly educated, intelligent and beautiful couple, heir to the throne and may become our future King and Queen in the future. And what did they decide?



A Royal Carriage ride around the royal town of KK? No, waste of money, state coffers or otherwise.



A Grand Wave from the Royal Balcony of The Palace so the Raakyat can wave back ?
Good Lord, naah...what ever for?



A Mas Kahwin and Hantaran of a couple of millions, they can afford it surely, and shouldn't the whole country and the whole world know that our royal couple is loaded? Absolutely not, since the amount will not guarantee anything, so why not stick to a decent amount, right? And use the otherwise excessive hantaran to feed the raakyat and improve their lives. (Makes absolute good sense but makes one wonder if you really need an Oxford and Nottingham degree to come to such a simple yet sound judgement.)




A Grand Banquet in 10 different towns in Perak, so that Raakyat who couldn't make it to KK will be able to partake in the celebrations? No lah......The news will cover it and all the Raakyat will get to know whatever they need to know about the couple, the wedding and whatever. There is great trust in the Great Malaysian Grapevine (GMG).



The Royal Couple decided on a simple wedding. A complete wedding with all the necessary rituals honoured. No fluff. But a beautiful wedding nevertheless, one that will be remembered fondly and proudly by all the Raakyat, distinguished or otherwise for a long, long time, until the day they grace the coveted throne. A "beautiful" couple will make a beautiful wedding, regardless of how much energy or money is spent.

For a change, I am not embarassed reading about a wedding of our eminent personalities. This is the kind of headlines our media should be covering. And based on the newspapers and berita on tv, they have done so. And I can imagine the sighs of relief by parents and people of marriageable age. At last, it takes a Royal Couple no less, to knock some sense back into our local public opinion on this simple beautiful union called marriage. That the wedding ritual and religious requirements are central , and that the rest are useless fluff. So maybe more young ones will dare contemplate marriage now and not have to worry about outdoing the last celebrity wedding.