Imagine this:

You have a plot of land in a place nearby a foothill and a river. You want to make a living there. So the first step that you do is creating a tool to clear out all the bushes. What tool could it be? An axe? A hoe? But then, you can't buy those tools because you believe that the money is not 'halal'.

Okay. Now you have an axe and a hoe that you built yourself. So you cut down all the trees and the bushes using the axe. And you use the hoe to clear out the place. Now you have a clear, fine place to build your house. The trees that you have cut down, you clean them out of the leaves and branches, leaving you with a pile of logs. Then you build a log cabin. You want to put up a window but you realize that you need glass to do that. So you scrap the idea and replace it with leaves and such. There. You have a house now.

You become hungry due to all the work that you have done. So you hunt a deer with your axe and hoe. You managed to catch one and slaughter the deer accordingly. Then you realize that you need fire to cook the meat. So you try to create sparkles from the stones in the river.

Eventually you managed to make a small fire. So you grill the meat and you eat. Then you go to the river and quench your thirst. You're done. You clean the deer skin and make a water bottle out of it, clothes (well, you can't use much so you decided to make a pair of short pants) and a bedmat for you to sleep in. You took a bath, change into the short pants and you're off to sleep. Not that comfy but enough to keep you alive for another day.

The next day, you make your breakfast with the deer meat that you saved earlier. Then you realize that you need some vegetables to go with the meat. So you go into the forest to find some vegetables that you know and collect the seeds/stems. You use the hoe to make some soil beds and you plant the seeds/stems - so that you will have your own vegetable stock. You use some animal dung (not pig or boar) to fertilize the vegetable gardens. Everything is natural - either you get it from the forest or the river, or you do it yourself.

You get on with your life just like the cro-magnons millions of years ago, but the difference is you're wiser (you used to live in a town where you studied up until the PhD level and have travelled around the world and gained a lot of experience and knowledge).

But why? Because you believe that the economy is controlled by the people whom you hate so much. Because you believe that the source of income that you get is not 'halal.' Because you believe that 99% of the consumer products like toothpaste (Colgate), bread (Gardenia), cream soup (Campbell), McDonalds, etc are the main income generator for the people whom you assume control the world. So by buying all these products, shows that you're their supporter too and that you allow them to take control. So you decided that you should boycott these products and quit your job. You don't want to be 'shubahah' anymore. And that is why you decided to go and live this way - primitive, because then everything is due to your own effort.

What makes of you eventually? Remember the movie Cast Away? Only that you're without all the modern stuff - not even Wilson, the ball. Just you and the nature. Can you imagine yourself actually doing this? You tell me.

MyKad errors bedevil Sagaran (The Star 24.01.2006)

IPOH: Lorry driver K. Sagaran has been having sleepless nights and fights with his wife – all because of his MyKad. 

The 44-year-old Batu Gajah-born Hindu said when he applied for his MyKad three years ago, the National Registration Department (NRD) office in Batu Gajah told him that their records showed that he was a Muslim.

“It created problems for me as my wife accused me of taking another woman,” he said yesterday at a press conference organised by Perak MCA Public Services and Complaints Bureau deputy head Datuk Lee Kon Yin.
 
According to him, he had to give a sworn statement at the Religious Department in Batu Gajah that he was a Hindu.

He said the recent case of the late Mount Everest climber Sjn M. Moorthy had not helped the situation.

“I could suddenly die in an accident. My wife is worried about the status of my religion.” 

Sagaran also found another problem with his card during the 2004 general election.

“I was told that my card showed I was born in Kedah.” 

Sagaran’s identity card number has a “02” code, indicating that he is Kedah-born, instead of “08” for those born in Perak.

According to him, the NRD staff in Batu Gajah had told him to apply for a new MyKad.

Lee said he would write to the Home Affairs Ministry to find out the status of Sagaran’s religion and to help change the code. 

My comment:

This issue is not new. There have been a lot of discrepancies in NRD's records. I remember when I applied for a new IC (not yet the myKad) at NRD Petaling Jaya, there were quite a number of cases where Chinese men were stated as female in their IC and they had to take an oath stating that they never had any sex-transfer operation etc. And not to mention mistakes such as Sagaran's. I'm not sure whether this issue is resulted from system migration (NRD upgraded their system a few years back to accomodate photo-taking "online" and myKad integration), but I believe NRD is responsible to check all their records the soonest possible. Though it's tedious but it's is very essential and neccessary to do in order to eliminate such issues. Though to some people, it's trivial, but I believe this issue is very serious and it is vital.

Imagine, if one day Sagaran dies (not that I wish him to), his family has to go through the hassle just to get him declared as non-Muslim. And the saddest thing, could be that his family couldn't bury him as a Hindu in the end.

And to the public, when you apply your MyKad or MyKid, make sure that all details are correct before leaving the NRD office. Don't wait until the last minute to raise any relevant matter. Remember, when you act fast, you solve fast, too.

The recent weekend was good. I had all the time to myself on Saturday doing stuff during the day and then watched Memoirs of a Geisha at KLCC. It's such a moving story and I believe Chiyo (the child actress) deserves a nomination for Best Actress. The details, the script, and the actors were all superb! To me, it's a love story in which was formed over time and the best thing was the love was shown through acts and gestures. So beautiful......

Sunday, I spent most of the day with my darling - Mandarin class, Subang Jaya and then One Utama. Somehow I realized that we've been busy doing our own stuff lately that we hardly spend the whole weekends together like we used to. In a way, I'm glad because we could do that, yeah, we do need some space and spend time with other people like family, but at the same time, I'm sad because I missed those times. Well, c'est la vie. You can't be too greedy.

And I'm already in holiday mood. I'm taking the whole week off next week and I won't be around . Can't wait to be "there"..... hmmm....