Saiz Manusia Purba

Maka kembalilah aku dengan post bahasa Melayu. Pendek sahaja post ini rasanya, hanya berkenaan dengan saiz manusia zaman dulu kala.

Rasanya kalau pun tulang tulang manusia lama seperti Perak Man (our very own local primitive man), Lucy, etc tak pernah ditemui, kita boleh mengagak saiz mereka dengan menggunakan logik semata-mata.

Cuba perhatikan gambar-gambar lama kalau ada, bandingkan saiz anda dengan nenek, datuk atau moyang anda sendiri, siapa lebih besar dan tinggi? (Betul, tak dinafikan ada juga orang yang lebih kecil dari datuk dan nenek moyang mereka) Cuba perhatikan secara umum saiz orang zaman sekitar pra-merdeka, dan cuba perhatikan juga secara umum saiz orang generasi baru zaman sekarang. Bagaimana?

Saiz manusia ini pada pendapat aku (dari pandangan biologi pun begini juga rasanya) pertama sekali ditentukan genetik, keduanya ditentukan nutrisi. Dengan nutrisi yang mencukupi seseorang itu akan membesar ke tahap maksimum yang dibenarkan oleh gen gen yang diwarisi dari nenek moyangnya.

Jadi dengan membandingkan betapa mudahnya bagi kita untuk mendapatkan satu hidangan berkhasiat pada zaman ini dan betapa susahnya orang-orang zaman purba mahu mendapatkan makanan ringkas, apatah lagi berkhasiat (mungkin mereka hanya ada lembing, terpaksa menyorok dalam semak, menunggu pelanduk atau lain lain haiwan kecil yang kurang berbahaya dan kemudian mungkin juga terpaksa bergumpal dengan haiwan buruan yang telah ditikam dengan lembing). Agak jelaslah rasanya yang sebenarnya kita ini lebih besar saiznya berbanding orang-orang purba ini.

Gambar di atas ini di ambil dari laman 'Berita Geografik Kebangsaan'. Dan ingin juga aku kongsikan bersama di sini yang Peking Man itu juga adalah dari golongan 'Homo erectus'. Tidaklah tinggi mana pun, 4 kaki 7 inci sahaja.

An Unexpected Spiritual/Emotional Experience

-Chapter 1-


I think I have clarified my stand when it comes to the topic of 'Religion' on older posts/entries.

I tend to look at things rather objectively than emotionally, or whetever other-ly for that matter, and I tend to question things that I'm supposed to just accept (telan bulat-bulat).

For example:
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I rolled my eyes (I made sure no one was looking) when I was at a family reunion and my uncles were explaining about Adam & Eve to my young cousins (the kids being what they are ask endless questions about nearly everything...which is a good thing - curiosity kills the cat, but kids are not cats haha..)

I rolled my eyes when the uncles said with certainty "Oh manusia zaman dulu besar! Tinggi 40 hasta macam pokok kelapa, dada lebar macam rumah"
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Maybe this is written in the Quran or some other important books written by some scholar, I'm not sure (is it?). But whatever the source is, I simply find it hard to believe that humans were once huge like that! (the possibility is there albeit very very small, no archaeologists have ever dug up giant human bones/fossils) And so I decline to give explanations like the ones given by my uncles whenever the kids ask me the same questions.

If I were to ever give explanations about the origins of human beings to the kids I'd always say "According to...... it's like this and according to...... it's like this. So we don't really know forsure"

Since I disagree with the simple explanation of the size of our ancestors, don't even get me started on the explanation that they were originally made of clay...


-Chapter 2-

Last night, after being repeatedly asked/begged to join in(teman) by the same bunch of kids, I watched Evan Almighty.

It's a very funny movie (watching it with a bunch of kids made it a lot funnier) and I'd recommend it to you if you haven't seen it.

Halfway through the movie, came a scene that is, in my opinion, amazingly touching as it is inspiring.

This scene takes place right after Evan's wife left him following his seemingly illogical/nutty confession that God has commanded him to build an Ark. His wife took the children along and on the way back to her mother's (I presume) they stopped by at a diner to eat.

Lo and behold, there at the diner, God appeared unto her looking like Morgan Freeman and offered her words of consolation.

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God: Excuse me. Are you alright?

Joan: Yeah. (God looks at her unconvinced) No. It’s a long story.

God: Well, I like stories. I’m considered a bit of a storyteller myself.

Joan: My husband… Have you heard of New York’s Noah?

God:(Chuckling) The guy who’s building the ark.

Joan: That’s him.

God: I love that story, Noah and the Ark. You know, a lot of people miss the point of that story. They think it’s about God’s wrath and anger. They love it when God gets angry.

Joan: What is the story about, then? The ark?

God: Well, I think it’s a love story about believing in each other. You know, the animals showed up in pairs. They stood by each other, side by side, just like Noah and his family. Everybody entered the ark side by side.

Joan: But my husband says God told him to do it. What do you do with that?

God: Sounds like an opportunity...
...
...
...

Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient?

If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage,
or does he give him opportunities to be courageous?

If someone prayed for the family to be closer,
do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings,
or does he give them opportunities to love each other?
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And there I sat, slightly behind the laughing kids, and I could swear I felt tears welling up.

Polite Mat Sallehs & Rude Malaysians II

Quoting from a comment,
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"I'm not one of those ppl our society so love to call 'kebaratan'. I really believe we have an abundace of good manners inherent to our cultures, just like any other culture"
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Exactly! I have no clue how 'barat' I am (in the eyes of our society) because I don't even know what scale/measurement form they use to determine 'barat'ness. But abiding by the smart principle of "Know Thyself", I know who I am...and a white man wannabe I am not!

I care about things like these precisely because I love our Malaysian/Malay/Asian culture. In terms of cultural achievements, I dare say that we have more than what the Mat Sallehs have, go back a few hundred years back into the past, and you'll find a period when the Mat Sallehs were barbaric, backward, and seemingly merciless and us Asians at that time were full of -kehalusan budi bahasa.

The Mat Sallehs developed and took their culture to new heights sometime during and after the Renaissance period, yes their achievement was not only intellectual, it was also cultural. After that they continued to grow exponentially (allbeit with sporadic wars here and there) and finally they got to where they are today.

Our forefathers had very big hearts, our culture was rich and our manners were exquisite...I wonder what happened to all that? Maybe we ought to have our very own Renaissance in the near future...

Polite Mat Sallehs & Rude Malaysians

When I was growing up, I remember a very famous idea that was used by fellow classmates and me whenever we're composing essays about degradation of moral values among Malaysians. Our teachers would tirelessly remind us of this idea again and again:

Kemasukan budaya kuning / influence of western values

This is how everything bad that was going on at that time was justified and maybe, just maybe, the same idea is still propagating in schools nowadays. The kids are taught to blame nearly everything on western values. Name whatever form of moral issues we're facing nowadays, and it is highly likely that most of Malaysians -who have been brought up with the idea of 'kemasukan budaya kuning' will point to the west and say "hey, that's where this is coming from".

But friends...I've gone to the west. Some of you who are reading this are still there -in the west, and you who have experienced or are still experiencing life in the west would surely, I think, corroborate the statement that I'm about to make.

-The Mat Sallehs are generally more polite than Malaysians-

I have found from my previous experience that it is easier to find a polite Mat Salleh (yang kononnya berbudaya kuning jahat ini) than a polite Malaysian.

To find rude Malaysians...ah, this one is easy. Try going to virtually any counters (to pay bills etc) or try entering an area that is patrolled by Malaysian guards, I can give you more examples I think, but I'll refrain and will stop here.

Adieu~

Bahasa Sebagai Alat Komunikasi

Dalam kesibukan di mana aku sebenarnya tak sepatutnya menggunakan internet bagi hal-hal 'chatting' / 'update blog'/'plain surfing', aku gunakan juga internet bagi tujuan-tujuan sebegitu haha.

Aku telah ke -oranje grove- dan rupa rupanya blog merces letifer yang tak seberapa ini telah di-link-kan. Terima kasih aku ucapkan. Antara blog lain yang di-link-kan di situ adalah blog penyanyi Jason Mraz, yang meletup dengan lagu 'Remedy' dan 'You and I Both' tidak lama dulu (sebenarnya dah lama jugak...haih cepat betul rasanya masa berlalu).

Jadi di blog Jason Mraz, aku terjumpa petikan ini:
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" Did you know the Greeks have 4 different words for Love? That’s not fair! I
think I deserve to have a way to say I really love ice cream and I really
love my Nanny (grandma) without bringing my Nanny into a world of lactose
intolerance and a madman’s craving for chocolatey deliciousness.

Eros is the passionate love, with sensual desire and longing; where erotic
comes from.

Philia is friendship, a dispassionate virtuous love.

Storge is natural affection, like that felt by parents for children, or
little ones for Nanny.

Agape – THIS ONE IS MY FAVORITE – is an all-inclusive unconditional love.
This is the one widely used in religious teachings. To have agape is to see
all people doing the best they can with the light they’ve got. Agape is not
spoken about. It’s a space you rest in, a state of being that is pure
uninhibited love. Someone in this state is not looking for a return on the
investment. In fact they don’t see it as an investment at all. This is
remarkable compassion "
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Menarik sungguh rasanya membaca petikan ini, memang bahasa-bahasa di muka bumi ini begitu, setiap satu ada 'advantage' dan 'disadvantage'-nya.

Di sini aku kongsikan bersama contoh dari hidup aku sendiri. Satu hari di atas sekeping kertas kerja aku tuliskan sesuatu hal yang perlu aku tulis dan aku menulisnya dalam bahasa Inggeris. Antara perkataan yang aku tulis adalah "discernment".

Tiba-tiba perkara yang aku tulis itu perlu di alih bahasa ke bahasa Melayu oleh salah seorang kenalanku. Jadi aku memantaulah proses alih bahasa itu sebab nak pastikan maksud sebenar apa yang aku tulis kekal.

Bila tiba di perkataan "discernment"....aku terpaksa berfikir seketika. Akhirnya ayat/perkataan yang aku cadangkan kepada si pengalih bahasa adalah ini:

"Kebolehan membezakan hal yang baik dan buruk"

Menarik betul bila difikirkan yang satu perkataan dalam bahasa Inggeris terpaksa dijelaskan dengan tujuh patah perkataan dalam bahasa Melayu.

Getting To Know Another Person

Sure I'm a little busy right now but that won't stop me from enjoying my life fully.

I simply wish to say that right now I'm in the process of getting to know a person of the opposite sex. Remember the rush that I talked about in 'Dilema menjadi Single', the rush that ya get when yer getting to know someone. Yep..I'm feeling it right now.

Life seems more colorful and vibrant...and I hope it will stay that way for a long long time :)

Busy as a Bee

Dear friends,

I am somewhat preoccupied (prieokkupid, pliiokkiupaiyd -iklan NST) at the moment. I'll be right back after this -one- hurdle..I might even share what this hurdle is all about anyway...due to its apparent benefit to all of us.

Do take care, and see you around.

-47-