Roy Zimmerman, satirist

Just found about this guy today by accident. Roy Zimmerman is a funny liberal satirist musician. Like Stephen Colbert, but with a guitar.

This is one funny song about Ann Coulter.

The Tilde (very short and random note)

Source from Wikipedia, that wonderful almost omniscient program after Google.

The Tilde, usually written as ~ has a noble history related to language and linguistics.

In European languages such as Portuguese or Spanish, ~ is used to mark nasalisation, such as informação (information) or razão (reason).

In Arabic, ~ is a maddah, used as a mark to lengthen the reading of "a", such as the Qur'aan (القرآن).

See? Very noble character. And it has uses in dictionaries, European languages, some Asian languages (such as Vietnamese), computer programming, mathematics...

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So how did ~ turn from mentioned above into:

"Ayang~

caye lapaw~~

nak ais-tweem~~~"

How did a noble character used as markings in religious texts and powerful words gets reduced to being a part of vomit-inducing "gedik" SMS messages? -_-"

Responses to Japan's Tsunami: a rant

I haven't written a note in a long time. So the flow might be a little rusty. Well, here we go.

Japan got hit by a tsunami. It was bad. Really, really bad. The Sendai earthquake and tsunami is one of the worst natural disasters to hit Japan since the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. With over +2,000 dead and +3,500 missing, and the Fukushima nuclear reactor explosions bringing to mind the Chernobyl tragedy, the Japanese have a lot on their hands. I have friends and acquaintances in Japan, and though they are safe, I am still worried about them. My prayers (since I can't do anything practically useful) for the Japanese. They rose from Kanto, they rose from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and they can rise again.

But there are some things that got me really pissed off, specifically Malaysian responses to the tsunami. Some of the responses really deserve more than a facepalm, okay? I got two things I'm angry about.

1) Berita Harian's cartoon and Fizz Fairuz's twitter post

-Yeah, we get it. Ultraman and Doraemon aren't real. Here's a little secret: the Japanese know about that too. Really? +2,000 dead warrants a comedic response? That cartoon characters are going to fly in and save them? What kind of ridiculous, sick mind would think to make fun of this? No one makes fun of the dead in the Holocaust, or the Rape of Nanking, or the Aceh tsunami, or the Palestinian dead. But it's okay to do it to the Japanese? Why? Because they happen to draw better cartoons than us?

(Note: I didn't know we Malaysians love black humour. I thought we only like sexual innuendoes in Raja Lawak or something that came out of Razak Mohaideen's untalented rear-end).

So the new standard is we can make fun of dead people, right? Nothing is sensitive, nothing is sacred, life and everything in it is a joke...so this means we should rescind the fatwa on Salman Rushdie for writing the Satanic Verses? Should we then forgive and accept the Danish cartoons then? I mean, if it's okay to make fun of those who died last week, then it's okay to make fun of the Holy Prophet who died 1400 years ago lah? Malaysians don't accept the latter. So why is okay for the former?

Even South Park gets criticised by fans for mocking Steve Irwin's death. And it's South Park. If basic propriety means you don't make fun of the dead, then you don't make fun of the dead lah!

But it is the second one is really too much:

2) Divine sadism

-This is not the first time that God's name is brought up whenever a disaster happens. And people with faith get mocked for it by atheists. And rightfully so. You know why?

The Holy Quran mentions the divine word "Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem" (In the Name of God, Most Gracious and Most merciful) 114 times. Not only in Islam. Other religions generally believe that the main characteristic of God is omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, benevolence, and MERCY. The Bible emphasises on God's unending Love: "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." (1 John, 4: 7-8)

So why is it that when a disaster happens, the mercy and love part is thrown out of the window, and the tsunami becomes God's divine wrath and judgment on the Japanese people for their sins on the world? What sins? We don't know. We just assume they are sinful. That's why they got punished. We'll make something up along the way, just so we feel better about it. We did it with the Acehnese. 'God punishes the Acehnese with the tsunami for being sinful (Muslim version), God punishes the Muslims in Aceh for not allowing the Christians to celebrate Christmas (Christian version).'

Why do we love to portray God as an angry, bloodthirsty, indiscriminate killer? (Atheists need not answer). Apparently, people like to portray God as just dishing out punishments just for the heck of it. And he kills children and the innocent too. As if He doesn't have the ability to distinguish between the innocent and the guilty. And we, in our limited understanding, dare to mock God by attributing such monstrosities to Him.

And we are arrogant about it too. Not for the first time this week, I heard someone say that the tsunami in Japan is God's way of punishing them for their crimes against the Muslims of Southeast Asia during WWII. I am quite disturbed by this. First, it took God almost 70 years to punish the Japanese for what they did to the Muslims? Really? The same God who in Surah al-Ra'd was referred to, "and He is Swift in reckoning"? (Surah 13: 41) And why only emphasise on the Muslims? The Japanese Army (yes, army. Not present Japan, a pacifist country, mind you) did more harm to the Chinese, in the Second Sino-Japanese War (20 million dead), the Rape of Nanking (300,000 dead, 20,000-80,000 women raped), and the Sook Ching Massacre (50,000 killed) in Singapore. Nobody talks about the tsunami as God's punishment for these atrocities. Why? Don't they deserve divine justice too?

And to punish the present Japanese people for what the army did 70-80 years ago. To punish a group of people for what another group of people did. Let's re-phrase that. To punish B, for what A did, and most people in the A generation, we assume, are already dead. So they won't be there to be punished. I think it's quite clear.

And to say that the tsunami is God's judgment upon the Japanese for their war crimes. As if, the Allies bombing on major towns is not enough of a punishment. As if, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where 200,000 people died and the hibakusha carried the effects of radiation throughout their lives is not enough of a punishment. As if, the 1995 Kobe earthquake, where 6000 died, is not enough of a punishment. No, no ,no. Apparently, according to the worshippers of divine wrath, the tsunami only shows that God is not done punishing the Japanese for their 'crimes'. And He keeps on punishing....

I do not like this view of God, and frankly, I am disgusted by people who came up with this view of God. Just because you people are sadistic, vengeful monsters, does not give you the right to paint Holy God in your image.

End rant.