Just writing some stuff here in my mother-tongue.
A story of Malays in my neighbourhood.
Awal tahun ni, aku pernah tulis di sini, tentang masalah peribadi-perumahan.
Belakang rumah aku ada badminton court, masalahnya budak2 Melayu selalu main bola di situ hingga kerap cermin tingkap pecah. Budak2 berumur 16-18 tahun.
Bila cermin pecah, tak ada ganti rugi, masing2 buat diam.
Tika aku menyuarakan suara aku kepada budak2 tu, aku ditempik. Malahan ada sedikit pergelutan akibat panas hati.
Aku dah mengadu ke maintenance management, no action taken.
Nak tak nak, terpaksa juga keluarkan duit untuk buat besi penghadang ke kebanyakan cermin tingkap untuk elak pecah.
Paling sakit hati, ada satu dua kali, aku dengar budak2 tu menjerit sindir, "siapa yang nak cabar kami berhenti main bola ha?".
Apa boleh buat? Sabar dan doa banyak2.
Akhir Syawal baru ini, aku ada buat rumah terbuka dan ada jiran2 sekeliling yang datang.
Aku terkejut dengar apa yang diceritakan.
Awal tahun ini, MRT Fasa 1 siap, di mana area rumah aku Subang, kini ada bas RM1 untuk ke MRT terdekat. Dan Julai lepas, MRT siap sepenuhnya sampai ke Kajang.
The catch?
Harga sewa rumah apartment aku meningkat dari RM500 kepada RM1,000 sebulan.
Rumah aku tingkat bawah corner lot, harga sekitar RM110,000 tahun 2015. Aku bernasib baik beli dengan harga jauh lebih murah dari itu.
Jiran di lot depan rumah aku berpindah akibat tak tahan peningkatan sewa, beritahu aku harga jualan rumah yang ditawarkan tuan rumah, RM300,000.
Kini lot rumah itu kosong tanpa penyewa. Tapi harga sewaan tak turun.
Aku perhatikan agar ramai penyewa Melayu berpindah dari kawasan apartment, termasuklah beberapa keluarga yang anak2nya main bola di badminton court rumah aku itu.
Masih ada budak2 Melayu bermain bola lagi lepas Syawal baru2 ni, tetapi sudah tak seramai dan seganas dulu.
Kini, lebih ramai penghuni bangsa asing, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Myanmar yang menghuni kawasan apartment, kerana mereka tinggal beramai-ramai dalam satu rumah, maka mereka mampu dengan kos sewa RM1000 sebulan.
Satu perkara bagus ialah Surau area rumah aku kini lebih ramai pengunjung.
Subuh pun boleh dapat 2 saf, (2 saf = two lines of people praying)
Maghrib dan Isyak dapat 4-5 saf.
My thoughts on this
Aku rasa, walaupun ramai Melayu menyalahkan PM Najib atas kesempitan hidup sekarang, tapi mungkin, we should blame ourselves.
Kalau nak kata ekonomi teruk, ramai juga watak seperti Datuk Vida dan Datuk Aliff Syukri tu ketika ekonomi agak teruk sekarang.
Aku rasa kebanyakan Melayu "mungkin" hilang keberkatan hidup.
Social media
Angkara media sosial mungkin satu punca hilang berkat hidup.
Keluarga artis yang bergaduh pasal karaoke, semua masuk komen dan mengecam.
Isu anak zina, banyak komentar sosial itu dan ini. Berdebat-debat tak sudah.
Tak campur lagi budak2 muda yang suka troll dan joke bodoh bagai.
Tentang filem Dunkirk pun orang ramai sibuk nak mengecam artis itu dan ini.
Komen, pendapat dan berdebat-debat.
But for what?
The feeling of becoming the next literary great?
Aku kini memilih untuk tak ambil tahu banyak berita semasa, apatah lagi nak keluarkan opinion bagai.
Religion
Melayu agak sensitif dengan agama.
Tapi, kalau benar-benar diperhati, kebanyakan orang Melayu ini alim-kah? Atau setakat "sembang-deras".
Kawasan apartment mak aku tiada surau, tapi di kawasan flat bersebelahan, ada satu surau.
Flat tersebut, majoriti Melayu Islam yang "middle-income", berpendapatan sederhana ke bawah.
Yang pergi ke surau, 5 orang. (Yang ini aku sendiri perhati sejak dulu).
Kawasan flat PPR ayah dan ibu mertua aku di Cheras, majoriti Melayu Islam yang berpendapatan sederhana ke bawah. Melayu Islam yang pergi ke surau waktu Ramadan tahun ini, 6-7 lelaki dewasa dan 5 lelaki remaja. 20 orang yang lain, Bangladesh.
Sedangkan di satu area elit di Damansara (berdekatan tempat kerja lama aku), RAMAI ke surau. Kereta-kereta jenama mewah memenuhi masjid tersebut hampir setiap malam Ramadan.
Media bodoh di TV selalu menggambarkan sebaliknya, tetapi itu lah yang aku perhatikan.
Summary.
Kurangkan pendapat, tingkatkan pendapatan. Walk the talk.
Played out, wide off the mark,
Mania develops,
Akin to fiction,
More than to a word of fact.
My own worst enemy.
Life's foul treachery.
Dams of emotion build
A dull and turbid screen,
Cloudlike veils of black
In jungles of hopes oppressed.
So many times,
For no reason.
So many promised punches,
For what reason?
Ceaseless decay,
Parallel obscene and flagrant.
Ceaseless decay,
Restrained my mind coils.
The full speech
Cardigan's Commencement Address by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr.
Transcript
http://time.com/4845150/chief-justice-john-roberts-commencement-speech-transcript/
The full speech transcript
Thank you very much.
Rain, somebody said, is like confetti from heaven. So even the heavens are celebrating this morning, joining the rest of us at this wonderful commencement ceremony.
Before we go any further, graduates, you have an important task to perform because behind you are your parents and guardians.
Before we go any further, graduates, you have an important task to perform because behind you are your parents and guardians.
Two or three or four years ago, they drove into Cardigan, dropped you off, helped you get settled and then turned around and drove back out the gates. It was an extraordinary sacrifice for them. They drove down the trail of tears back to an emptier and lonelier house.
They did that because the decision about your education, they knew, was about you. It was not about them.
They did that because the decision about your education, they knew, was about you. It was not about them.
That sacrifice and others they made have brought you to this point. But this morning is not just about you. It is also about them, so I hope you will stand up and turn around and give them a great round of applause. Please.
Now when somebody asks me how the remarks at Cardigan went, I will be able to say they were interrupted by applause.
Congratulations, class of 2017. You’ve reached an important milestone. An important stage of your life is behind you. I’m sorry to be the one to tell you it is the easiest stage of your life, but it is in the books.
While you’ve been at Cardigan, you have all been a part of an important international community as well. And I think that needs to be particularly recognized.
[Roberts gave brief remarks in other languages.]
Now around the country today at colleges, high schools, middle schools, commencement speakers are standing before impatient graduates. And they are almost always saying the same things.
They will say that today is a commencement exercise. ‘It is a beginning, not an end. You should look forward.’ And I think that is true enough, however, I think if you’re going to look forward to figure out where you’re going, it’s good to know where you’ve been and to look back as well.
They will say that today is a commencement exercise. ‘It is a beginning, not an end. You should look forward.’ And I think that is true enough, however, I think if you’re going to look forward to figure out where you’re going, it’s good to know where you’ve been and to look back as well.
And I think if you look back to your first afternoon here at Cardigan, perhaps you will recall that you were lonely. Perhaps you will recall that you were a little scared, a little anxious.
And now look at you. You are surrounded by friends that you call brothers, and you are confident in facing the next step in your education.
And now look at you. You are surrounded by friends that you call brothers, and you are confident in facing the next step in your education.
It is worth trying to think why that is so. And when you do, I think you may appreciate that it was because of the support of your classmates in the classroom, on the athletic field and in the dorms.
And as far as the confidence goes, I think you will appreciate that it is not because you succeeded at everything you did, but because with the help of your friends, you were not afraid to fail. And if you did fail, you got up and tried again.
And if you failed again, you got up and tried again. And if you failed again, it might be time to think about doing something else. But it was not just success, but not being afraid to fail that brought you to this point.
Now the commencement speakers will typically also wish you good luck and extend good wishes to you.
I will not do that, and I’ll tell you why.
From time to time in the years to come, I hope you will be treated unfairly, so that you will come to know the value of justice.
I hope that you will suffer betrayal because that will teach you the importance of loyalty.
Sorry to say, but I hope you will be lonely from time to time so that you don’t take friends for granted.
I wish you bad luck, again, from time to time so that you will be conscious of the role of chance in life and understand that your success is not completely deserved and that the failure of others is not completely deserved either.
And when you lose, as you will from time to time, I hope every now and then, your opponent will gloat over your failure. It is a way for you to understand the importance of sportsmanship.
I hope you’ll be ignored so you know the importance of listening to others, and I hope you will have just enough pain to learn compassion.
Whether I wish these things or not, they’re going to happen. And whether you benefit from them or not will depend upon your ability to see the message in your misfortunes.
Now commencement speakers are also expected to give some advice. They give grand advice, and they give some useful tips.
The most common grand advice they give is for you to be yourself. It is an odd piece of advice to give people dressed identically, but you should — you should be yourself. But you should understand what that means. Unless you are perfect, it does not mean don’t make any changes.
In a certain sense, you should not be yourself. You should try to become something better.
The most common grand advice they give is for you to be yourself. It is an odd piece of advice to give people dressed identically, but you should — you should be yourself. But you should understand what that means. Unless you are perfect, it does not mean don’t make any changes.
In a certain sense, you should not be yourself. You should try to become something better.
People say ‘be yourself’ because they want you to resist the impulse to conform to what others want you to be. But you can’t be yourself if you don't learn who you are, and you can’t learn who you are unless you think about it.
The Greek philosopher Socrates said, ‘The unexamined life is not worth living.’ And while ‘just do it’ might be a good motto for some things, it’s not a good motto when it’s trying to figure out how to live your life that is before you.
And one important clue to living a good life is to not to try to live the good life. The best way to lose the values that are central to who you are is frankly not to think about them at all.
So that’s the deep advice. Now some tips as you get ready to go to your new school. Other the last couple of years, I have gotten to know many of you young men pretty well, and I know you are good guys. But you are also privileged young men.
And if you weren’t privileged when you came here, you are privileged now because you have been here. My advice is: Don’t act like it.
And if you weren’t privileged when you came here, you are privileged now because you have been here. My advice is: Don’t act like it.
When you get to your new school, walk up and introduce yourself to the person who is raking the leaves, shoveling the snow or emptying the trash. Learn their name and call them by their name during your time at the school.
Another piece of advice: When you pass by people you don’t recognize on the walks, smile, look them in the eye and say hello. The worst thing that will happen is that you will become known as the young man who smiles and says hello, and that is not a bad thing to start with.
You’ve been at a school with just boys. Most of you will be going to a school with girls. I have no advice for you.
The last bit of advice I’ll give you is very simple, but I think it could make a big difference in your life.
Once a week, you should write a note to someone. Not an email. A note on a piece of paper. It will take you exactly 10 minutes.
Talk to an adult, let them tell you what a stamp is. You can put the stamp on the envelope.
Again, 10 minutes, once a week. I will help you, right now. I will dictate to you the first note you should write. It will say, ‘Dear [fill in the name of a teacher at Cardigan Mountain School].’ Say: ‘I have started at this new school. We are reading [blank] in English. Football or soccer practice is hard, but I’m enjoying it. Thank you for teaching me.’
Put it in an envelope, put a stamp on it and send it. It will mean a great deal to people who — for reasons most of us cannot contemplate — have dedicated themselves to teaching middle school boys. As I said, that will take you exactly 10 minutes a week.
By the end of the school year, you will have sent notes to 40 people. Forty people will feel a little more special because you did, and they will think you are very special because of what you did. No one else is going to carry that dividend during your time at school.
Enough advice. I would like to end by reading some important lyrics. I cited the Greek philosopher Socrates earlier. These lyrics are from the great American philosopher, Bob Dylan. They’re almost 50 years old. He wrote them for his son, Jesse, who he was missing while he was on tour.
It lists the hopes that a parent might have for a son and for a daughter. They’re also good goals for a son and a daughter. The wishes are beautiful, they’re timeless. They’re universal. They’re good and true, except for one: It is the wish that gives the song its title and its refrain. That wish is a parent’s lament. It’s not a good wish. So these are the lyrics from Forever Young by Bob Dylan:
May God bless you and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
And may you stay forever young
May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you
May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong
And may you stay forever young
May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift
May your heart always be joyful
May your song always be sung
And may you stay forever young
Thank you.