Shine like A Star KIDS!!

I don't know about you guys, but I had always hoped that I had learned some kind of arts when I was growing up - especially music and DANCE! I mean, if I had learned dancing when I was much smaller - when I was much more hyper and flexible (not that I am not still now, but more) I would probably be a Mega star now.

I know, I know, I am already a star, but I want to be MEGA!!! eheheh~

When the not-so-Brats meet - Rendezvous with Ernest & Aki

Last Thursday Brat meets with other brats from the blogosphere. Well, sorta-brat-like.

I met with AKI BORNEO and ERNEST!!! How cool was that!

Ernest: *cough *cough

Brat: Still not well yet?

Ernest: I'm good for two hours. 

Aki: (patting Ernest's back #bromance)

Malaysian Raya Mania

Malaysia is well known for its diverse culture and friendly as well as well-mannered people. However, these nice, friendly people gave way to a certain wave of manias that came when it comes to celebrating their ‘raya’. Each time there are festivities, no matter what celebration it is, may it be Hari Raya, Chinese New Year or Deepavali, Malaysian of all ethnicity and religion seemingly blends into one. All of them are ‘diagnosed’ as ‘raya mania’ positive.

#1 Everything-Must-be-New Mania 

new furniture (source)

When it comes to raya, ‘everything-must-be-new’ mania seems to fall on every family home in the country. New curtains, new sofa set, new television, new furniture, new car, basically everything in view must be new – or at least look like new. Some goes to extreme of comparing with their neighbors who have the more expensive or the more beautiful or the more extravagant new things. A few days before raya this year, one of the top local radio station morning segment features the topic ‘lagak raya’ where the listeners would call in to brag about their coming raya preparation. Common sense would argue that no one would actually seriously call in to so, surprisingly a lot of them did. They talk about how many thousand ringgit they are going to spend on clothes alone, the ‘kuih raya’, and the renovation of house, buying new car and what not.

#2 Shopping Mania

Shop till you drop! (source)

This ‘everything-must-be-new’ mania is accompanied or perhaps the reason for the shopping mania. Everywhere, so called ‘sales’ and reduction of prize were being held by the sellers. Malaysians of all races, religion, and age comes out and endure the traffic jam and the human ‘sardines’ situation to grab the opportunity to buy things at a seemingly ridiculous discount. No one really cares that some of the sellers took this opportunity to actually mark up their prizes. No one really cares that the ‘discounted’ prizes are actually the same as the actual cost. By the eve of raya, the prize of these items went even more ridiculously low, up to 90% discount of the initial prize they offer. This shows how high the prize had been marked up. Of course, by the time of raya eve, no one really cares anymore.

#3 Need-For-Speed Mania

The Nightmare of every driver (source)

Another mania that could not be missed is the ‘need-for-speed’ mania that is extremely dangerous to the point of being fatal. Since festivities are one of the rare chance they actually manage to squeeze in time between their busy schedule to meet with their families and friends, all of them seems eager to get there quick. Thus, each year, during festivities, the accident statistics rise up and the awaited arrival becomes the heartbreaking departure. People seem to not care about road safety. When accidents occur, traffic jams are a definite sure thing that will follow. And thus many of them spend their raya in the car, stuck in traffic jams that take up hours of their time and cursing whoever caused the traffic jam.

#4 All-You-Can-Eat Mania

Malaysian Foods (source)

One more mania that is no alien to the Malaysian culture is the all-you-can-eat mania. Open houses and parties and family dinners become an excuse for the people to eat whatever and in whatever amount they wish. After one house serve ‘Nasi daging,’ the next one served Laksa, and the next one serve Mee Udang and the list just keeps going on. Although their stomachs are full, they kept on putting in more for the sake of ‘tasting’ and for being ‘polite’. No wonder the amount of people admitted to hospitals for high pressure, diabetes and the like kept increasing.

These manias that befalls on Malaysian each ‘raya’ celebration is actually a disease that infected most if not all Malaysian whether they realize it or not. At an escalated level, it could be a pandemic, and create trouble. 

There is nothing wrong to indulge oneself with some luxury once in a while but do it discreetly while considering other people and other factors as well. There’s no point spending each and every dime now to have such short-time luxury, when the next two or three months or year you need to be content with instant noodles and sky juice for lunch just for the sake of footing the bills. There’s no point in trying to get there fast if in the end, you ended up not getting there at all. Remember, safety comes first.

The Malaysian ‘raya’ mania probably won’t die anytime soon. But that doesn’t mean, we can’t be amongst the one to start first. Perhaps, our attitude will affect our family, and friends, and soon, everyone will practice the same thing. That may very well be a distant and impossible dream, but one cannot dream enough. So it isn’t such a bad thing. We just do what we can albeit slowly. After all, despite the manias and perhaps because of these manias that each and every year we continue to enjoy our raya holidays. And perhaps because some of these related characteristics, we were able to be who we were, Malaysian, one nation, one country, one Malaysia.

Signing off,

Malaysian Cool la Weh!

Lately, I felt down and despaired by how us Malaysian kept on fighting with each other. What makes it worst are the people who chose to paint the situation in black and advertise it through various medium how bad the situation is for the rest of the world to see.They usually do it for the sake of 'freedom of speech' and 'getting the truth out' which essentially, not wrong. Malay proverb calls it as "membuka sekam di dada" which means you are opening up wide your 'skeletons in the closet'. But they forgot that as a group, we do not broadcast our weakness to outsiders, especially to the enemies. Those who does it are considered a traitor. 

Source

 However today, my spirit soar up a bit when I saw this advertisement by Digi . I don't care if it's done by whom and if there is  "ulterior' motives behind it, what I do care is that the message it brings forward are something that everyone who call themselves Malaysian can relate to. If not, then maybe, you should not live here. Throw away your 'my card' and be a citizen of other country. You may be ungrateful and wish to hurry and escape this country, but once you are out there, you might be itching to get back. For whether you like it or not, this is us, Malaysians.

 

Selamat Hari Malaysia :)

Say what you want, I am proud to be a Malaysian,

the brat with opinions,

A Merdeka Post by the Brat

Hari ini brat nak buat satu 'post' dalam Bahasa Melayu. Bersempena dengan sambutan kemerdekaan yang ke 53 ni, brat nak memakmurkan Bahasa Kebangsaan kita dalam blog Brat. Mungkin rasa nya berbeza, tapi asasnya tetap sama.

Selama ini, Brat belum pernah menulis dalam Bahasa. Bukan kerana Brat tidak boleh atau tidak bangga menulis dengan Bahasa Kebangsaan kita, tetapi selain daripada tempat Brat meluahkan perasaan, blog ini juga merupakan suatu platform untuk Brat berlatih Bahasa Inggeris Brat. 'Omputeh' kata "practice makes perfect". Tak salah kan?

Mungkin Brat hanyalah sekadar seorang anak muda yang adakalanya nakal dan seolah-olah terlupa akan asal usulnya. Tetapi, sebenarnya Brat ni agak patriotik. Tak percaya? Sungguh. Brat suka nak menghayati sejarah, kadangkala, bila mendengar cerita tentang perjuangan atuk nenek moyang kita dulu bertungkus lumus menentang penjajah, terasa sayu dan sebak. Apatah lagi bila tengok anak-anak muda sekarang, bertungkus-lumus dan berkejaran untuk menjadi seperti penjajah, dan terus mengagungkan mereka.

Cukup bab sedih. Brat nak cerita pasal satu pertandingan reka poster dekat Fakulti Brat. Ada beberapa poster yang sangat menarik perhatian Brat. Maaf kualiti gambar yang agak teruk. Brat cuma ambil gambar dengan kamera di telefon bimbit, jadi kualitinya agak kurang.

Poster yang paling Brat suka,

Karya - Azhani binti Amir

Selain dari itu, beberapa poster lain yang sangat simbolik, bermakna dan cantik pada Brat;

Karya - tak ingat lah. Nanti Brat semak balik ye.

Karya - Emm.. nanti Brat kena semak balik juga.

Karya - Mazlin Aisha binti Zainal Abidin

Karya - Ahmad Fazley Ahmad Suhaimi

Cantik bukan? Banyak lagi karya-karya yang sama menarik di pamerkan di Fakulti Brat. Selain cantik, apa yang Brat suka adalah penghayatan erti kemerdekaan dan konsep 1 Malaysia dalam poster-poster tersebut.

Satu peringatan dari Brat, kita semua tidak kira bangsa, agama, warna kulit dan kepercayaan, adalah rakyat Malaysia. Kita semua berada dalam satu kapal. Andainya kapal ini tenggelam, tiada seorang pun antara kita akan terselamat. Hargailah kemerdekaan yang kita ada. 53 tahun mungkin terasa lama, tapi, jika dibanding dengan beratus-ratus tahun kita dibawah jajahan asing, apakah cukup kebebasan selama 53 tahun itu?

Selamat hari Merdeka, dari Brat,