Rudyard Kipling"
“When you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldier”
General Douglas MacArthur"
“We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”
“It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.” “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
“The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
“May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .” “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
“Nobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
With bans and shutdowns, best to stare at a brick wall - Martin Vengadesan
Sunday, July 31, 2022
Malaysiakini : COMMENT | The other day I went to
look at a wall. Indeed, I paid good money for the privilege of staring
at nothing for one and a half hours.
The one and a half hours is
roughly the duration of time I might have spent at a comedy club, indie
rock gig, cultural event or cinema hall. Needless to say, such
options have been increasingly clamped down upon as your beloved Ismail
Sabri Yaakob regime moves with aplomb to crack down on comedy, toughen
up on Thor and raze rock venues.
The fact that the backward
Taliban lovers of PAS are part of this coterie is doubtless an
accelerating factor, but we are clearly paying the price of allowing the
corrupt, racist and stupid to set the pace and tone for this country’s
future development. Or lack thereof.
If it sounds like I am being melodramatic, just take a close look
around you. The great Malaysian diversity of voice is being killed off
on so many fronts in so many ways. When I was a kid living in Cold
War-era Europe, I learned to embrace the idea that figureheads of
politics, royalty and religion should be treated as fallible human
beings. The alternative is allowing them a free hand to dictate our
lives.
Now we have never had that level of openness here, but it’s
getting from bad to worse as mindless right-wing propaganda and
half-baked religious fantasies appear to be the way forward for young
Malaysians.
Bon Odori, Oktoberfest, Thor: Love And Thunder,
Crackhouse Comedy, Fahmi Reza, Turun, etc. There is a wide range of
things that we can’t do because some simple-minded people want to defend
their narrow interpretation of the way life should be lived… at our
expense.
Amazingly the censors and police never seem to clamp down on the hate speech of the Mahathirs and Hadi Awangs of this country, allowing them free reign to pit Malaysians against each other on the basis of race and religion.
