Keanehan Sikap Rakyat Malaysia

assalamualaikum

Beberapa hari yang lalu, negara dikejutkan dengan pemergian bekas timbalan perdana menteri malaysia, tun abdul ghafar baba.

Dalam media mahupun akhbar tempatan, allahyarham telah dipuji-puji, jasa beliau dikenang, diri beliau disanjung. dalam erti kata lain, semuanya terdengar begitu indah.

Anehnya, sebelum pemergian beliau, kita tidak dengar cerita-cerita ini. semuanya disimpan kemas oleh pihak media. Pimpinan negara juga tidak ada menyebut-nyebut jasa beliau. semua disimpan rapi dalam peti.

Lihat sahaja allahyarham P.Ramlee. Hanya selepas kematian beliau barulah kita terhegeh-hegeh nak beri gelaran Tan Sri. Leftenan Muda Adnan. Mati baru dapat pangkat Leftenan. Selepas mati, pangkat dan harta tak bererti. Hanya doa dan amal soleh yang dapat meringankan azab alam barzakh.

Teringat ketika Nik Aziz sakit tenat. Bukan main ramai yang memuji beliau. Konon, umat islam di malaysia masih memerlukan beliau. dalam erti kata lain, pujian itu mendoakan mati. Bila beliau kembali cergas, haram nasihat beliau hendak didengar. sebelah mata pun tidak pandang.

Sayang sungguh, budaya rakyat Malaysia. Kematian ibarat kunci yang membuka peti rahsia tadi. Sayangnya, si mati tidak dapat rasa erti dihargai. Sayang, kita gemar mengeji, jarang sekali memuji. dan jika ada sekalipun, bila si empunya badan telah pergi.

Erti Hidup Pada Memberi. Biarlah memberi pada yang dapat menghargai.

(Jika tidak, lebih baik sahaja sedekahkan Al-fatihah)

BUSHISM

Baru-baru ini, saya ada terjumpa sebuah artikel memetik ucapan Timbalan Perdana Menteri Malaysia. Yang menggelikan hati adalah satu unsur Bushism yang terdapat dalam ucapan beliau.

Sila rujuk makna Bushism dan contoh di wikipedia.

Ayat Najibism

"Kita ada angka sebenar jumlah penagih tetapi ada juga penagih yang kita tidak kesan".

Agaknya, sudah menjadi trend pemimpin seluruh dunia untuk mengikut jejak langkah Bush, hatta penyakit Bushism telah turut berjangkit kepada pemimpin kita.

- Mari belajar bahasa Melayu-

BALKANS 3.0 ZAGREB

26/03/2006

I woke up for fajr, and went back to bed. The next thing i remember was it was already 11.00am and i quickly went to the bathroom to have a shower.

If my memory served me right, we went home the night before by bus. There were simply too many people on the bus, and the driver could not be bothered with people not paying. I felt slightly uneasy being surrounded by drunkards of all kinds. Football supporters, nightclub goers, and so on.

Well, i got a phone call from Duc. He left the house at 8am with his dad. They were planning to sell Duc's car. He told me on the phone that he was heading home. They could not find the right customer with a right offer. They were hoping for more, since a new LNG tank has been installed to the car. Before i replaced the handset, he made me aware of the clock-change. 'Summer Time. Add one hour to the time'. I did not bring the manual for my watch with me, and i did have a rather difficult time correcting my digital watch. Somehow, after pressing few buttons at the same time, i managed to get it displaying the right time. Well, one thing done.

Next, i waited for Duc to come home. In the mean time, i tried to speak with his mum. She did put a lot of effort to understand me, since i don't speak Croatian. We talked about simple stuff. Few minutes later, she received a phone call from her mother, and I felt quite strange, the feeling you have when you know people were talking about you, but you simply could not understand.

Anyway, when Duc came home and we had our lunch. I remember having something like goreng pisang but it was pumpkin instead of banana. I was told that Croatians really like pumpkin, and this point was supported by an article i found in a croatian magazine. We had some other stuffs like soup, potato bread etc, and then off we went to the city centre.

The National Theatre

Zagreb was a huge city, considering the population of Croatia was only about 4.4 million. I think it was about the size of Bristol, but everything seemed so structured. Almost all buildings were built into grids, where roads and streets formed the squares all around the city. The city was not badly hit during the fight for independence against the Yugoslavian forces.

The main road inside the city was called the Green Way. The reason being is that if you can a green light on the west end of the street, you will get all green lights and pass through the city quickly, given that you time your car accurately. To both sides of this street, the modern city was developed with train squares, theatres, train station etc.

Trams In The City

Zagreb was equipped with reliable public transportation, comprising Trams, Buses and Bendy Buses. At a rather cheap rate (6.5 Kuna per journey), one can travel all the way across the city within one hour. There were few new trams in the city. Duc told me that Zagreb citizens collectively donated to the council spefically to buy this new trams.

First, we parked the car near the City Theatre building. From that spot, Duc walked swiftly through alleys and streets, which was quite difficult for me to follow. In no time, we arrived at a rather dodgy alley, and i had no idea why he had brought me to this place. Anticipating my question, he grabbed my hand and pulled me into a huge room, packed with few other croatians youth. Making a loud entrance, he introduced me to a few of his mates and members of the Miniatures Game Club.

I saw Fu trying to teach few kids of some tricks and rules of the game, while somewhere else, i saw Tomislav taking on a kid almost half of his size (most probably half of his age too).

'David vs Goliath'

Honestly, i was really impressed by the amount of time and effort that these people put into their hobby. Everything looked so realistic, and what impressed me most were the terrains that they used for the game. The bridge, crop fields, stone walls, shattered wooden house and many others. It seemed that everyone was so engrossed with his own business that i could roam around the room freely taking few pictures of some ridiculously-ugly-yet-carefully-painted creatures.

Terrains and Dices

To Be Continued...

BALKANS 2.0 GRAZ-ZAGREB

25/03/2006

I did not write much about Graz in my previous entry. Well, to be fair, i did not spend too much time in Graz, which would give me fair judgement to write specifically about Graz.

From what i saw, i would say Graz is quite an old city. Located on east Austria, the city must have seen many significant historical occurances. It must be one of many places that witnessed the superiority of Ottoman's empire.

Well, Graz is famous for its Schloss (castle). Located on top of the hill, the castle allow visitors to have rather panoramic and picturesque view of the city. Next to it is the Clocktower.

I was looking for the bus station and was helped by an old lady, whom Deutsch is her only language that i can partially understand. Realising my deutsch has deteriorated cathasthropically over the past few months, i could not help myself but regretting. Our conversation was not very succesful. Anyway, she directed me towards the tourist info centre.

I managed to get to the bus station, but could not find exactly where i can find bus to Zagreb. I decided to go to the train station. It is situated slightly outside the city. I walked towards the trainstation according to map in my GuideBook, and passed by a Turkish Mosque. Since i was not sure of the train timetable, i could not spare time to stop over. I reached the train station 30 minutes before the last train to Zagreb of that day left.

City of Graz

H:2232

I safely arrived in Zagreb Glavni Kolodvor (Zagreb Train Station). The train made few previous stops, and my passport was checked by passport control of different countries for many times. The first time was when the train was crossing Austria-Slovenia border. Since it demonstrates the EU-NonEU barrier, the check was more tedious. I was asked about my luggage etc. Similarly, crossing the Croatian border, it was quite complicated too. Alhamdulillah, i was carrying my friend's address in Zagreb. Seeing that my friend lives in Ulica Pantovcak (Pantovcak St), the control did not ask me much.

I later discovered that Pantovcak is a very posh area of Zagreb, inhabited by well-off citizens and embassies.

Arriving in Zagreb, i sent a text-message (or SMS) to my friends. I was looking at the map of the city, when i heard someone calling for my name. Dubravko and Tomislav simply came and hugged me while joyously shouting and cheering at the same time. It was a rather weird undescribable moment, meeting someone you know for only 3 days, and not seeing each other again for 3 years. Dubravko later said that he was quite amazed at how quick we have become friends.

Anyway, we talked and we walked around the city. They were in the middle of something. And they took me to their friend, Fu's house. There, Fu was waiting with his girlfriend, Svetlana. She came from Sarajevo. Fu lives quite close to Pantovcak, and he has a garage which he turned into his miniature production centre. Basically, they were painting the miniatures, using each's own imagination and creativity to colour and pose those mini-statues. I later found out that the miniatures were used in a dice-game.

Later, Dubravko took me to his house in Novi Zagreb (new Zagreb). Literally i was shown to half-room for me to occupy for the next few days. No sooner than i put my head onto the pillow that i fell asleep.

to be continued...

BALKANS 1.0 BRISTOL - LONDON - GRAZ

24/03/2006

Well, i did not have any lecture on this day. Always tried to keep friday free from anything.. made life a whole lot easier. I can spend more time socialising with people from the ISoc committee, calculating the friday collection, and many other things.

Anyway, I packed my luggage way before going to Jumu'ah, not realising that I forgot something very crucial and important. Since it is something really private to talk about, just assume that i had to go home and collect the stuff.

Then, I went to the islamic centre, and waited for maghrib. Making the athaan as quickly yet appropriately as possible, i was helped by Muhammad Faris. He was leading the maghrib prayer, and he read surah Al-Nasr and Al-Masad, which was not very common for him. Usually, he would read verses from lengthy suraahs, like albaqarah or ali imran.

Immediately, i ran to the coach station, since it was due to leave at 6.50pm. Alhamdulillah, made it on time, and met FarahDina who was on her way to Petronas briefing in London.

There was a career fair going on later on Sunday. However, i was so excited to embark on this journey, that i really could not be bothered with anything else. Well, career is definitely something i will be working on, but not now, or before my graduation.

Stayed for the Abn's house-turned-into-youth-hostel, i slept rahter early, so that i would be able to wake up early enough to catch a bus to London Stansted airport the next day.

25/03/2006

I woke up as scheduled, and swiftly repacked my luggage. Then, I bade farewell to people of the house, and left to Victoria Coach Station.

Well, everything was rather smooth and i managed to catch the 8am coach to the airport. It took about 90 minutes to get there, and alhamdulillah, i got there way before they open the check-in counter. There were so many kids going on the same flight to Graz. I guessed it was a school trip.. and not to mention, the kids were so noisy at the airport. Grabbing each other's passport and throwing it around like a piece of rubbish..

I was quite starving, and having checked in my serunding ( malay typical dried meat) with my luggage, i bought some walkers crisp and a bottle of water. And the flight was delayed for one hour. I felt a little dissappointment, but i simply wrote it off. Did not want my exciting trip to be spoiled by this flight. After all, it was down to how i deal with stress. I think, i was doing better than how i would have reacted 3 or 4 years ago.

I rang amar salehuddin, who was waiting to board his flight in Luton. To my surprise, his flight was delayed for 12 hours. Hmm, this made me even more realise that i am better off than some other people in the world (or in other london airports).

Anyway, a replacement aeroplane was ordered from spain, and finally, we comfortably boarded the plane, although priorities were given to the school kids. And some people did join the group, pretending to be one of the teachers.. queue cutters..

Well, i sat next to a Veterinary Doctor in the flight on the emergency exit row. Well, this row provides people with extra leg room. The name was Dr. Wolfgang, from Vienna, and he was reading a book about the Holy blood and the Holy grail. Basically, he gave me a sumamry of Da Vinci's Code and all those secret society's stuff.. well, i am not a great fan of Dan Brown, but somehow i managed to listen to him for quite a while.


Graz Airport

We parted in Graz, and I went to the city. Initially, i was thinking of spending a night or so in Graz. But after touring the city in about 2 hours, i decided to leave by train.

BALKANS: INTRODUCTION

The first of the balkan series...

I had to rely on my memory in writing this part of the journal, since my travel log is not with me, and i am not sure when i am going to get it back.

It was almost three years ago, when i embarked on my journey to eastern europe for the first time. It was summer months 2003, when the temperature was rather extreme, and hit the highest point in european history of recent decades. Some people may blame it to the global warming effect, but whoever's fault it was, many people, especially elders of the community were affected. some even lost their lives due to the heat.

At that point of the year, i had just finished completing my voluntary warden scheme with RSPB. It was all initiated by my reluctance to pay any rent during the summer months. And after undergoing the necessary conservation work training, i decided to leave and travel to the continental european countries alone.

I still remember questioning myself.. why i am doing this? what do i want to achieve? I have no intention on aswering any of those questions over here.. Many people travel for different reasons, and i have my own reasons..

To cut things short, I arrived in istanbul by plane. It was a rather short and smooth journey from Bucharest. After spending several days in istanbul, i decided to leave by train. There is only one daily train service connecting istanbul with pathios, where one can get connection to thessaloniki or athens. My initial plan was to go to athens straight away, and because of that i boarded this train. Because it was the only free transport for backpackers, the train was literally crammed with smelly-but-can't-be-bothered backpackers.



There were 6 seats in each cabin, and few cabins in a coach of the train. Looking for a suitable seat, i realised that almost all cabins had been taken by one group or another.. I found a cabin, which was occupied by 4 huge white males, and one guitar, which i had to be satisfied with. Later, the cabin was joined by coming and going locals, since the train was simply packed with people.

In this cabin, my friendship with few of these fellows began to nourish. One of them, Rubens is from Denmark, and the other three, Vinko, Dubravko and Tomislav were Croatians. Well, I soon realised that they call their country Hrvatska and not Croatia. This made me wonder, how the word Croatia came to exist and stamped on the Hrvatskans.

Anyway, the journey was troublesome. I think, almost everyone who followed the same Istanbul-Athens route will come out with similar comments. Train services in Greece were rather interesting (i am trying to be as diplomatic as possible here, ok!).. Basically, the Croatians and I spent couple of days together from istanbul to pathios. and then to thessaloniki. slept under a tree outside the train station, later to athens.. walked to the famous Acropolis.. took a night train to Patras.. slept in the fortress park.. had shower from someone's tap outside his gate.. went to the ocean and swim in the blue greek mediterranean water.. took a ferry to Bari.. where in the end we parted..

Over those many days together, we managed to know each other quite well.. or very well.. There's a saying that says something like 'you don't know your friends, until you travel with them'.

After the trip, i managed to keep in touch with them for so many years. Realising that i am going to graduate soon, i decided to pay a visit to my friends across the continent.. and I simply put Zagreb in my place-to-visit priority list.

Soon i realised, that it was easier said than done. I had been planning to visit zagreb in few breaks, but i simpy could not put the plan together. Until few months before the spring break, i decided that if i did not go there now, i will never be able to go there. Taking everything more seriously, i started to work on my plan and my budget.


It was later that i met my uncle who came to London for some business deals in Germany. He advised me to include Sarajevo in my plan.. well, i did not take him very seriously at that moment. However, in the end, i decided to go to Sarajevo, and it was a decision that i would really regret had i not done so.

Well, i came back from Balkans, and the place that i enjoyed most was Sarajevo.. a place far worth visiting than Rome or Paris or any other fancy cities that i have been to before..

to be continued...