The title of the book was too long so I made it short for the purpose of the title of this post...
Currently: sipping tea and listening to Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from the 'Nutcracker'. I heart orchestra!
Ok. On to the book review.
TGWaCP is short for The Girl With a Cardboard Port.
It's a story based on a real story of an Australian woman and her trials.
Her story revolves around 3 countries: Australia, Singapore and Tanah Malaya (before Malaysia was formed and after).
She describes her life starting from when she was but a teenager living with her mum and siblings after her fathers death. She describes her feelings for her dad as a love-hate relationship: loving him because he was her dad and hating him for how he treats her.
After her fathers death she moves in with her auntie and since her mother is poor, she was to give up her dreams for a scholarship and work. In times of trouble she recieves help from a Jewish family and falls in love with the son of that family.
One day she decided to purchase a rosary for her dead dad in hopes that she is forgiven of her sin: 'She had wished that her father would just die and he did.'
When she reached the cemetary, one minute she was standing over her fathers grave and the next she is bawling on his grave. When she returned home, she refused to work and seeing this as an act of disobedience her auntie sends her to a 'Christian boarding school' which later she found out turns to be a school for wayward girls. In the school she was beaten and verbally abused by the 'sisters'. She described her stay there as a prison and slowly she feels that she is losing herself. This is shown when she is constantly called 'Number 5' by the sisters and her constant reminder that she has a name and family.
When her mum came over for a visit, she no longer could stand being in the 'prison' and begged her mum to take her out. She was thrown into a cell for her disobedience. Just when she thought that was the end, she was rescued by her Jewish boyfriend and her mother. Sadly, right after that episode, her boyfriend was sent back to Israel.
Once again she lives with her aunt, uncle and her family. Suddenly a past lover of her mother comes and ruins what little peace she has in her life. The man, Ken, verbally abuses her and her mother. Unfortunately, her mother needed to marry the man in order to support the family. At one point the heroine of the story came back and discovered that the man tried to drown her mother in the bath tub. After rescuing her mother, she had to flee from her house in fear that the man will send her to prison for trying to murder him to save her mum. So she flees and stays with her co-worker (a prostitute).
Her friend suggest that they runaway and they followed some trailer guys. Here the heroine was tricked by her friend and she lost her virginity in order to pay for the transport, accomodation and food. However, after that episode, her friend no longer told her to service any customers.
At one point, she decided to marry a chinese man in hopes for better life, but things only got worse. He does not care for her at all and sends her off to Singapore. In the foreign land, she felt so lost. Cultural differences made it even more difficult for her to adapt. She is not respected nor loved by her new family and thus lives in constant loneliness. She then saved an indian girl and the girl starts to work for her.
When her husband found a mistress, he then sends her to a kampong somewhere in Tanah Malaya. Where he rarely visits and only calls for her for formal gatherings. In once such gathering, she publicly humiliated him by accepting to dance with an indian man (who in those days are deemed lower class compared to her husband). Racial discrimination were abundant. Not only between Englishmen and the natives of Malaya but also between the Chinese, Indians and other natives. In my opinion, it made the whole world feel filthy and horrible. Men go around raping women of lower station and prostitution were abundant.
In the kampong, she was attacked by a terrorist group and to save her children she sacrificed money, food, medicine and also her body. In her despair, she decided to go into prostitution to support her life and that of her childrens. She also unexpectedly fell in love with one of the terrorist. She even mentions that she would have runaway with him if he did not mention her children.
When her husband came and took her from the kampong, he brought her back to Singapore. She was so tired of everything, she just wanted to go back home to Australia and she even begged help from her sister-in-law to reclaim her passport from her husband. Unfortunately she was tricked by the entire family. Her husband tried to use her to pay off his debts.
In that moment of madness and despair she received her passport from her sister-in-law and was told to leave but her children cannot go with her.
She left for Australia but did not feel the happiness that she thought she would have. How could she when she just lost her kids?
When she reached australia she thought "I've reached home, but at what cost"
Even years after, when her daughter came to question her abandonment, she could not. How could she tell her child that she was raped, used by their father, attacked by terrorist and falling in love with one of them?
Her son refused to forgive her and since she did answer her daughters questions, she too couldn't forgive their mother.
After reading this novel, I closed it with a heavy heart. I've never before manage to grasp the realities of the past and somehow, after reading this tale I feel that I'm SO very glad I wasn't born during that time. I didn't like how there was constant worry in the air, how poverty in those days were so much more horrible than what it is now. How did people live in those situations? When I think about my brothers and sisters of faith in Gaza and Palestine I feel their pain. How could they bare it? How could anyone make them bare it? Oh God I pray for them. I'm so helpless and I feel there is nothing I can do but pray.
If only people understand, really understand, how precious peace is. How everything, EVERYTHING, that we have now is so precious. The hours we spend laughing and enjoying our time, the lazy hour we spend on Facebook and the good food and homes we have are so very valuable that I wouldn't trade it for anything!
People say if we don't fight for our rights then we are cowards, but fighting isn't the only way to win.
When we do something to protect the things we love, it doesn't matter if the other party wins the battle as long as we win the war, as long as we manage to protect the things we love.
I watched this drama where a man running a restaurant happens to see his wife being scolded by some mafia guys. People would think that the right thing to do is to defend her and fight back but he went in front of them and apologized. He bowed fervently and begged forgiveness. Do you think he is a coward? The gang just laughed at him and left. He isn't a coward. He manage to save the people he love. He cherished his wife more than his ego or his pride.
Sometimes, fighting is not the right way to solve anything. If he fought back, they would come back with more men and just make things worse. We really need to know our priorities and know what is in our life that we care about most of all. (Learn your strengths and weakness as well as the strength and weakness of your enemy)
Muslims during the time of the Prophet s.a.w, sacrificed everything they had for their faith and even their lives. Goes to show that pride, ego and stubborness isn't something worth protecting. It is our life, the people we love and the faith in Allah S.W.T. that we should hold above all else. I remembered one part in the book I read about Saidina Abu Bakar where during the time of Uhud war (sorry if i got this wrong. I don't quite remember), when the muslims were losing the war and many fleed and left the prophet, there were a few men that stayed behind with him. The prophet (in his tent) prayed fervently to Allah S.W.T. for help. He prayed to the extent that he became very weak. Abu Bakar, unable to watch his friend any longer, embraced the Prophet from behind and exclaimed "That is enough, for surely Allah S.W.T. will grant your wish". After that, they won the war. I seriously almost cried (again). The extent of their friendship and their love towards Allah S.W.T. is probably something I am not able to match. I was just so touched.
For surely Allah S.W.T. helps those who seek help from him. He remembers those who remember Him.
~owari
p.s. This is probaly the longest book review I've EVER done (and a day before my midterms). O_O
Friday, March 5, 2010
Book Review: TGWaCP
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Bystander Effect
This is really fascinating read. Click HERE to know what I'm talking about.
One lesson I got from this is: More doesn't mean better.
In one of the videos about the child getting kidnapped I was so touched with what the two young man did. Imagine seeing a kid screaming for help and not doing anything. How horrible!
Is society REALLY like that?
I seriously hope not. Research and studies on human behavior can sometimes provide a pattern or a system of the human behavior but I believe its not permanent. We can always break out of this system. We just need to be conscious of what we do.
Its not simple but I believe in it.
People don't automatically fall into the bystander effect. It's just scary how we (in general) like to leave the responsibility to other people.
In my class there was once a case where my lecturer told the students at the back row to send a representative to come down and get some papers to distribute to the group of students who sit at the back. This would require only ONE student to come down. Yet the decision made for ONE student to volunteer to come down took more than 5 minutes. Imagine the exasperation. My lecturer actually yelled "What? ARE YOU DEAF? I said COME DOWN TO GET THE PAPER!!!!!" Do you see what happened? The students in the back row assumes that someone other than themself would go down to get the papers and in the end no one made a move. Only when my lecturer yelled did some students begin to move.
Its really exasperating! A decision that could be made within miliseconds turned to 5 minutes just because everyone in the back assume someone would do it. And this was a simple decision to make. Just stand up and go. It's not like they had to save someone or jump in a river or something. So imagine if you saw a person drowning. How many minutes do you think you'll take if there were other bystanders with you? I think by the time you made a decision the person would have already drowned.
I find human psychology my favourite study. I recommend others who like this field to read BLINK. BLINK is a book written by Malcolm Gladwell delving into the topic of human psychology in cases where we have to make snap judgement. The power of thinking without thinking. Somewhere along the lines of your subconscious mind.
How often do you find yourself regretting over what you did? Or maybe thinking why you did such a thing? Maybe you didn't have much time to think over what you did. Or maybe you just did what first came to mind.
Blink underlines studies on stereotyping, preconceptions and the effect of pressure or duress towards our actions and our decisions.
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One really interesting case in the book caught my interest.
"Tragedy on Wheeler Avenue"
4 police men driving by a neighbourhood late at night came across a young black man. They were driving pass and so they couldn't see him well. One thing they noticed other than the fact he was black, was that he was a small man. What does small mean? - It means he's got a gun. -
Its 12:30 in the morning and he's alone in a lousy neighbourhood. The preconception -he's got a gun.
The policemen believe that if he was alone in that neighbourhood he wouldn't dare come outside his apartment alone. Therefore, they believed him to have a gun. Or else where did he get the bravery to come out alone? (THIS is not fact. They just came up with this reasoning not based on any solid information but on their own belief that if he's black and in a lousy neighbourhood in the late hours it means he has a gun. I know this sounds irrational but if you were the police wouldn't you think so too? Try ask yourself and picture yourself in their shoes before you judge them.)
They stopped the car, 2 police came out and called out to the man, "Police. Can we have a word?"
The man panicked; terror was written all over his face. Why wouldn't he be afraid? 2 big white man are coming towards him at that late an time, so he ran. Now this then turns into a pursuit.
Here's another fact: The policemen are new to the neighbourhood AND new to the street crime unit.
Guess what happens during the pursuit?
The police men's heart rate soars. The pressure is on and they don't know how to handle it.
The man turns sideways upon reaching his apartment door and digs something in his pocket.
AND all hell breaks loose.
"He's got a gun!" And they began shooting.
After 41 bullets were shot, the boss went to the body and checks it.
"Where's the fucking gun!?"
One police officer runs up the street and another sits next to the bullet-ridden body and starts to cry.
This story from the book underlines the dangers of our preconceptions and stereotype.
The policemen saw that he was a black man in a lousy neighbourhood and came up with the conclusion that the man had a gun. You might think that this situation happened for probably more than 10 minutes. Fact is that it happened in a few seconds. Around 1000 seconds but these few seconds were enough steps and decisions to fill a lifetime.
Other books by Malcolm Gladwell are Tipping Point and Outliers. I got them both but have yet to read them.
Hope you'll read them too. (Here's another link to a review on BLINK)
And one last link which i find interesting...
Chao~!
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Book Review: Daughter of Venice
Hello~ Im back with another book review. Ok. Although this book has nothing to do with Islam it's still a wonderful read and I would love to recommend it to all of you to read. Especially the ladies~
No no. Before you guys go shaking your head its not a romance novel... Well there is a bit of love but that's not the main point you see.
The story takes place in Venice and tells of the Venice culture during those times.
The most important lesson from this story is: Education.
After reading this book I am so thankful im born in this generation where ladies are allowed to get education without prejudice.
The book tells the story of Donata. She is always confined in her home and longs for adventure.
She feels like she does not even know about the place she lives in. She knows that she lives in ignorance and long to learn just as her brothers are learning.
One day when her dad breaks the news that only her eldest sister is to marry she decided that she needs to have an adventure that will last her a lifetime. What she got instead was so much more.
It's the story of discovery of ones passion, about understanding the world and the passion for knowledge. That raw need to know things, to understand things and most importantly to learn.
I recommend this book especially to ladies. Because it is a feminist book after all. haha.
But if you guys want to take a hand at reading this novel, then by all means go ahead.
The book will teach you to love knowledge and to build up your own passion for learning.
~Let's all read. It all starts with education.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Book Review: The Road to Mecca
When I first bought this book I didn't quite like the cover. With it's red (mine is a more brown toned) toned cover and pictures of a man I didn't recognize, I didn't quite find it interesting.
It's true that we shouldn't judge a book by it's cover and sometimes things are not what it seems but the modern perspective of "good packaging and good brands bring good quality" seems to be implanted in our very minds (mine not excluded of course) .
However, the moment I read the reviews located behind the book I knew it in my heart that I had to purchase it. I can say with great affection that I never regret purchasing this book.
And here I begin my narrative of a wonderful experience;
Muhammad Asad or was once known as Leopold Weiss (born in July 1900), was born into a Jewish family. His grandfather was an orthodox rabbi in Czernowitz and his own father a banker and lover of science. He himself had a thirst for history and recieved private tutors at home for a thorough grounding in Hebrew religious lore.
Due to his budding religious wisdom he soon developed a supercilious feeling toward many of the premises of the Jewish faith. It was in his view that the God of the Old Testament and the Talmud was unduly concerned with the ritual means of which His worshippers were suppose to worship Him. It also occured to him that this God was strangely preoccupied with the destinies of one particular nation, the Hebrews.
Through the novel, I experience a sense of awarenes unlike any other novel I've read. Asad's descriptions of the desert, of his own restlessness and of his unlikely encounter with Islam and the people of Arab felt so real and so engrossed was I with his character that every smell, every taste and every feeling that he described was as if etched in a part of my own past, as if I myself have felt what he has felt. But alas I realize that I am but a reader and these experiences are not of my own but of another.
While reading the novel on the ERL back from KL one day I happen to be reading a particular page that touched my very soul and then the tears began to fall....
"May God give you life; this house is your house, eat in the name of God. This is all we have' - and he makes an apologetic gesture with his hand, a single movement in which the whole weight of his fate is expressed with that artless power of evocation so peculiar to people who live close to their instincts- 'but the dates are not bad. Eat, O wayfarers, of what we can offer you...'
The dates are really among the best I've ever eatenl; and the host is obviously pleased by our hunger which he can satisfy. And he goes on:
"The wind, the wind, it makes our life hard; but that is God's will. The wind destroys our plantations. We must always struggle to keep them from being covered in sand. It has not always been thus. In earlier times there was not so much wind here..........The wind.. but we do not complain.. As you know, the Prophet - may God bless him - told us: "God says, Revile not destiny, for, behold - I am destiny..."
I must have started, for the old man stops speaking and looks at me attentively; and, as if comprehending why I started, he smiles with almost a woman's smile, strange to see in that tired, worn-out face, and repeats softly, as if to himself:
"... behold, I am destiny: - and in a nod with which he accompanies his words lies a proud, silent acceptance of his own place in life; and never have I seen, even in happy people, a Yes to reality expressed with so much quiet and sureness.
"My desire goes elsewhere: I dream of a form of life - though I must confess I do not see it clearly as yet - in which the entire man, spirit and flesh, would strive after a deeper and deeper fulfilment of his Self - in which the spirit and the senses would not be enemies to one another, and in which man could achieve unity within himself and with the meaning of his destiny, so that on the summit of his days he could say, "I am my destiny."
And here you see the writer has recieved an answer to his desire, recieved his answer in the most unexpected place. In the home of a stranger who accepted him (also a stranger) into their home and provided him food even when they themselves were struggling to survive.
He recieved his answer in a man, not rich, not famous but so completely aware of his reality and one with his destiny.
I felt such an enormous amount of feeling wash upon me (although what that feeling was I cannot properly describe it into words). It was the feeling of how it was Islam that brought this man his answer.
I dried my tear soaked eyes and continued my reading... and then the tears fell yet again...
'Do you really believe that God expects you to show Him your respect by repeated bowing and kneeling and prostration? Might it not be better only to look into oneself and to pray to Him in stillness of one's heart? Why all these movements of your body?'
As soon as I uttered these words I felt remorse, for I had not intended to injure the old man's religious feelings. But the hajji did not appear in the least offended. He smiled with his toothless mouth and replied:
'How else then should we worship God? Did He not create both, soul and body, together? And this being so, should man not pray with his body as well as with his soul?
Listen, I will tell you why we Muslims pray as we pray. We turn toward the Kaaba, God's holy temple in Mecca, knowing that the faces of all Muslims, wherever they may be, are turned to it in prayer, and that we are like one body, with Him as the centre of our thoughts.
First we stand upright and recite from the Holy Koran, remembering that it is His Word, given to man that he may be upright and steadfast in life. Then we say, "God is the Greatest," reminding ourselves that no one deserves to be worshipped but Him; and bow down deep because we honour Him above all, and praise His power and glory.
Thereafter we prostrate ourselves on our foreheads because we feel that we are but dust and nothingness before Him, and that He is our Creator and Sustainer on high.
Then we lift our faces from the ground and remain sitting, praying that He frogive us our sins and bestow His grace upon us, and guide us aright, and give us health and sustenance.
Then we again prostrate ourselves on the ground and touch the dust with our foreheads before the might and the glory of the One.
After that, we remain sitting and pray that He bless the Prophet Muhammad who brought His message to us, just as He blessed the earlier Prophets; and that He bless us as well, and all those who follow the right guidance; and we ask Him to give us of the food of this world and of the good of the world to come.
In the end we turn our heads to the right and to the left, saying "Peace and the grace of God be upon you" - and thus greet all who are righteous, wherever they may be.
'It was thus that our Prophet used to pray and taught his followers to pray for all times, so that they might willingly surrender themselves to God - which is what Islam means - and so be at peace with Him and with their own destiny.'
The old man did not, of course, use these exactly these words, but this was their meaning, and this is how I remember them.
Years later I realized that with his simple explaination the hajji had opened to me the first door to Islam; but even then, long before any thougt that Islam might become my own faith entered my mind, I began to feel an unwonted humility whenever I saw, as I often did, a man standing barefoot on his prayer rug, or on a straw mat, or on the bare earth, with his arms folded over his chest and his head lowered, entirely submerged within himself, oblivious of what was going on around him, whether it was in a mosque or on the sidewalk of a busy street: a man at peace with himself.
In the beginning of the book the narrator stated:
"The Arabia depicted in the following pages no longer exists. Its solitude and integrity have crumbled under a strong gush of oil and the gold that the oil has brought. Its great simplicity has vanished and, with it, much that was humanly unique. It is with the pain one feels for something precious, now irretrievably lost, that I remember that last, long desert tre, when we rode, rode, two men on two dromedaries, through swimming light...."
I would like to note that the author was not born in Arab lands but see here, he describes his love for the Arab and its land that he noted "It is with the pain one feels for something precious, now irretrievably lost". Throughout the novel I notice how the writer explains that his life before felt like a dream and he felt that he truly belonged when he was travelling in Arab land.
The novel itself was a wonderful read and a wonderful experience. Although I would love to decribe more about this novel I fear that my post has become to long. If anyone wishes me to continue please leave a comment. If there is but one person who wishes me to continue i will do so at another time. Please feel free to buy or borrow this book and read it. It is better to experience it from ones own point of view is it not?
I recommend this book to anyone and everyone. It is wonderfully written. This book is not meant to be read by only Islams and i encourage any mature reader to try a hand at reading this.
It's beautifully written and wonderfully touching. Makes you understand the beauty in Islam.
When I read this i had one thought that lingered in my mind "Many people are born into Islam here in Malaysia but how many of us truly searched for Islam for ourselves."
People might say I'm Islam because my parents are Islam. Is that not ignorance?
Are we just following the steps of our parents. Are we really Muslims?
I really respect and admire these people who aren't born into Islam but searched and found Islam in their lives. Yes I believe that God showed them the way but if each of us whether born into the religion or not, actually strived to find out more about our religion isn't that wonderful?
Why do children nowadays take religion just based on their family's background? why not know more about your religion? Be it Islam or Christian or Buddist or Jew or Tao or any other religion.
Instead of just accepting it why not learn more about it and really, truly accept the religion not because you were born into it but because YOU YOURSELF made the decision.
YOU YOURSELF who said "ah, yes, this is what I've been searching for and this is what I truly believe in."
I admit I myself am still learning. Still slow in my progress but I'm happy because I've made an effort. God does not require for you to be the best, Allah S.W.T. just want you to do your best and He will take care of the rest. (Thanks Nasuha for this encouraging words. I will remember them).
I might not be the best but I'm trying and giving an effort and slowly but surely He is guiding my way. Amin
You don't need to rush, take it one step at a time. Learn your religion and God will show you the right way. All it takes is one step and the world will change.
"The best way to discover something is to discover it yourself"