Thursday, December 20, 2007

Bloody Wars



Today is a holiday.

Selamat Hari Raya Haji! Semoga dunia menjadi tempat yang lebih baik untuk kita semua, semoga hidup aku menjadi bertambah baik juga.

Earlier this morning, I went to the mosque to join the congregation and to listen to sermons/khutbah. Once the prayer has been performed, the imam/prayer leader gave a pretty laudable sermon. With a clearly good sense of propriety he talked about how Abraham sacrificed (or tried to) his only son, and he went on explaining how we should be able to relate ourselves to that event. How we should realize that we need to make our own sacrifices for the things we love.

Setelah mood para pendengar mejadi 'mellow' dengan cerita-cerita pengorbanan, imam lalu bercakap pula berkenaan kesatuan umat Islam sedunia. Tentang bagaimana ramai orang-orang Islam sedang di dalam kesusahan sekarang dan juga tentang bagaimana tuhan sayangkan orang Islam yang menolong saudara seagamanya.

That's a good point, I thought to myself. I think it is great that religion (which is a very holy, respected, and BIG thing for the majority of Malaysians/Asians) can make people realize how imperative it is to be nice to one another and how important it is to help, not only someone who has the same faith as yours, but also a fellow human being in need. I say so, because from my experience, religion seems to promote mostly the mentality of "aku saja betul".....or maybe that's an isolated case, restricted to my community only.

Aku baru sahaja sudah menonton Nanking (highly recommended). Sebenarnya tak habis pun, aku hanya menontonnya separuh jalan akibat tak tahan rasa nak menangis melihat orang-orang tua yang terselamat ketika Jepun menakluk Nanking dahulu menahan sebak menceritakan semula kejadian yang menimpa mereka dan keluarga mereka. Yang ditembak, di-bayonet (ibu di-bayonet berkali-kali di hadapan anak-anaknya yang meraung-raung), di pancung, dirogol tanpa mengira umur (ada yang semuda 7~8 tahun, kemudiannya ditikam atau ditembak mati pula).


War is crazy. Whether waged in the name of God, caliphate, colonial expansion, communism, democracy, (arranged in chronological order) or any name you can think of, war remains as what it is; A foul black as death whirlpool of degeneracy that'll eat you along with your soul!


Kalau ada apa hal sekalipun, cubalah berbincang atau bermesyuarat, perang itu janganlah dijadikan 'last resort', sebaliknya perang itu mestilah dijadikan 'unnecessary'.
Lagi sekali, semoga dunia menjadi tempat yang lebih baik untuk kita semua.


As a conclusion, here's a little something that CNN and BBC would never air and as such, most probably have never reached you via newspaper or television.



2 comments:

Lin Abdul Rahman said...

War only makes sense to those waging it. I read a book about Pol Pot and actually thought his ideals made sense - that is until i was reminded of the brutality his ideals brought to Cambodia. I guess it's easy to get immersed in your ideals and lose all sensibility.

47 said...

True, Shaz of Shaz, war makes sense only to the warmonger.

The horrible thing about war is that its effects last for a very long time , generation after generation, young ones had to suffer for the sins of their fathers.

For example, the problem of child prostitution Cambodia is facing today is directly related to the policies carried out by Pol Pot's regime where families were broken up and new social units were made (engineering sosial lah kononnya).

Since family units are paralyzed, kids are left untended and..well shit happens.