Hey, I'm home the whole day the whole weekend for once cuz my legs hurt from all that going out. I'd had planned to go see cherry blossoms today, but too bad I can't take anymore walking, and I just found out that the buses that go to the cherry blossom place doesn't run during the summer. I mean, for crying out loud, Hamilton, that's just so lame. The park opens only during Spring/Summer and you cease service to those parks come Spring/Summer ? Hello ? Common sense ? Okay, fine, so students go home and there's fewer people, so you cut costs by cutting bus route services, but still, it's not like the Mac kids go there during the term anyway or live around there anyway, so what gives ? Yeah, kinda sad that I have to stay indoors. The next time I'll get to see it is probably next year since cherry blossoms only lasts for a few days and there are only a few of them around Canada since they had to bring them in from Japan for the Canadian-Japanese partnership Project Sakura. Mac has one measly sakura tree but it's still pretty young and it doesn't have the big clumpfuls of cherry blossoms yet.
If there's one cliche'd romance trope that I am guilty for liking, it's the blooming sakura trees, sue me, too much anime. Some people find it overrated especially when the blooming sakuras aren't all too impressive, and I've seen some hanami videos where it's super crowded with people picnicking, spread-to-spread, but imagine this, one park with a carpet of green grass, blooming sakura trees yang lebat and rendang, providing shade, and it's just you under all that pink on a green sea. It's surreal. That's the kind of thing that I was hoping to look forward to today, because nobody goes around here in Hamilton anyway. I've come to be accustomed to the "loneliness" in Hamilton. Nobody comes to Hamilton, and you kind of feel that all this green, these waterfalls, they're all mine, and no one else's because nobody goes here. Not that I've not tried to "share" it with somebody, but it just never happens. I guess Hamilton just makes me more an introverted than I ever was, but it's nice. It's serene and exclusive and I don't feel disturbed.
Aku sebenarnya malas nak tulis in proper English or Malay, and I kind of feel like nak comment something about politics, yeah, after my exams haritu I've been catching up on politics news, tu pun rasa terlampau banyak lagi because there's just too much, and there's lots of thoughts concocting in my little head, itching to get it down, but then I kind of hold back, rasa macam, kurang sesuai nak comment, like, it's not my time yet, and I'd rather keep a clean record of myself, just in case, and most of the time, I try to keep my own thoughts and biases to myself, because I feel that it's not necessary for me to declare myself aligning to which ever party, and I'm pretty sure that once I do so, it's easy for people to pull up something to discredit my views or drag me into all this political riff-raff. I'd rather save myself the hustle and stay out of the mess, and observe. Tapi, even so, nak komen juga sedikit.
Truth be told, whatever conception of politics that I have, most likely stems from what I read, since I am absent from Malaysia, and I do try to read everything, from both sides, from anyone, but I stray away from tabloids. Secondly, my perception of politics, due to my absence, most likely stems from the media that I observe, and from the Malaysian people on my Facebook. So, I do find it in myself to tell myself that whatever I know might be subjected to these sources of biases, and from the sample of people I have on my Facebook, may not be representative of the general mass, or the real situation in Malaysia.
However, I do have people from different walks of life on my Facebook - the overseas mahasiswa, the local mahasiswa, people from my dad's generations, Canadians (irrelevant to this discussion), random people I know and I added on Facebook, I can kind of, at least know what the circle of people I know is thinking of.
There is a split between those who talk of politics the "old way" i.e. scandals, character assassination, jeering, and there is a group of people who do actually talk with facts, and whom I almost always follow the links they posted. With those people yang mode character assassination and all that, it kinda leaves me disillusioned. It leaves me thinking no matter how "good" that person appears to be, there's always going to be some scandal waiting to happen, and you don't even know if it's the real thing or not, so, most of the time, I'm pretty much skeptical and cynical about anything. Tapi satu je, that I will feel very strongly about in politics, and I will state my stand, it is when religion is being misused for politics, when the line between a person's opinion and suruhan Tuhan is being blurred, that, I shall never agree with. Saya tak berkenan tengok kawan itu kawan ini sokong parti politik berlainan pastu calling each other kafir. It makes me sick.
Of course, sometimes I do express myself, and I tend to generalize, but bear in mind that I'm completely aware that you can't possibly generalize everything, I know and I am open to anything that doesn't fall under the generalization. The only reason I tend to generalize is simple, because it is reflective of the sample of people I have on Facebook, and for those people who don't fall under that generalization, and sedia maklum, that they aren't, tak perlu terasa lah, and it's no big deal pun. I just can't shut myself up, I say things as I please.
Okay, that was a far off tangent, but my point is, as much as I also believe in change, what needs to actually change is the way you approach politics itself. Dalam kalangan mahasiswa pun ada juga golongan yang jenis taksub parti, share this and that, but there is also golongan mahasiswa who are keen on creating intellectual discussions and debate, and respect each others' opinions. Ini commentary spesifik sikit, but from what I see, from the sample of people I have on Facebook, there is a growing awareness amongst the mahasiswa and a majority of them are supporting parties (or party?) which appeal to them because it upholds values of liberty and justice as understood by these mahasiswa. They are starting to find confidence in themselves to talk about ideas. All those stuff yang menakut-nakutkan pasal kejatuhan melayu, Islam etc is old cheese. Not many people buy into that now, well, maybe there still are ..
Yet even so, despite that optimistic-sounding statement, I still do see some of these efforts to have intellectual discussions still gets reduced to the old way politics of calling names bringing out skeletons from the closets, either young or old. It always gets reduced to merely discussing about this scandal and that. It can't be helped, I have people from both ways of approaching politics. Then again, the system has been like that. Both the top and the bottom, and it takes a heck of a lot of effort to change the way people talk about politics.
Sometimes I don't know if people really are getting politically mature, or if it's just an easier thing to do to put the blame on the political leaders (regardless of whichever party they are from) and find ways to discredit them to prove them unfit for leadership than actually talking about real issues. As for me, I personally believe that whichever leader you elect comes from that same system that you are a part of. Kalau pemimpin dia macam tu, sebab datangnya daripada kalangan yang macam itu lah. If the system doesn't change, the leader can only do so much, no matter how good he/she is. After all, politics is merely the reflection of the people.
I personally don't believe that there is a need to be "Orang Parti A" or "Orang Parti B". I am only that "orang" for the time lapsing between pangkah-ing the voting paper and putting it into the ballot. Political affiliations is not part of my religion to me untuk diuar-uarkan, dipertahankan mati-matian. (not voting this year. tak cukup umur, by the way).
I may want to ubah, but I want to ubah CARA orang (rakyat, pemimpin, etc) berpolitik even more than anything, regardless of mana-mana parti pun.
If there's one cliche'd romance trope that I am guilty for liking, it's the blooming sakura trees, sue me, too much anime. Some people find it overrated especially when the blooming sakuras aren't all too impressive, and I've seen some hanami videos where it's super crowded with people picnicking, spread-to-spread, but imagine this, one park with a carpet of green grass, blooming sakura trees yang lebat and rendang, providing shade, and it's just you under all that pink on a green sea. It's surreal. That's the kind of thing that I was hoping to look forward to today, because nobody goes around here in Hamilton anyway. I've come to be accustomed to the "loneliness" in Hamilton. Nobody comes to Hamilton, and you kind of feel that all this green, these waterfalls, they're all mine, and no one else's because nobody goes here. Not that I've not tried to "share" it with somebody, but it just never happens. I guess Hamilton just makes me more an introverted than I ever was, but it's nice. It's serene and exclusive and I don't feel disturbed.
Aku sebenarnya malas nak tulis in proper English or Malay, and I kind of feel like nak comment something about politics, yeah, after my exams haritu I've been catching up on politics news, tu pun rasa terlampau banyak lagi because there's just too much, and there's lots of thoughts concocting in my little head, itching to get it down, but then I kind of hold back, rasa macam, kurang sesuai nak comment, like, it's not my time yet, and I'd rather keep a clean record of myself, just in case, and most of the time, I try to keep my own thoughts and biases to myself, because I feel that it's not necessary for me to declare myself aligning to which ever party, and I'm pretty sure that once I do so, it's easy for people to pull up something to discredit my views or drag me into all this political riff-raff. I'd rather save myself the hustle and stay out of the mess, and observe. Tapi, even so, nak komen juga sedikit.
Truth be told, whatever conception of politics that I have, most likely stems from what I read, since I am absent from Malaysia, and I do try to read everything, from both sides, from anyone, but I stray away from tabloids. Secondly, my perception of politics, due to my absence, most likely stems from the media that I observe, and from the Malaysian people on my Facebook. So, I do find it in myself to tell myself that whatever I know might be subjected to these sources of biases, and from the sample of people I have on my Facebook, may not be representative of the general mass, or the real situation in Malaysia.
However, I do have people from different walks of life on my Facebook - the overseas mahasiswa, the local mahasiswa, people from my dad's generations, Canadians (irrelevant to this discussion), random people I know and I added on Facebook, I can kind of, at least know what the circle of people I know is thinking of.
There is a split between those who talk of politics the "old way" i.e. scandals, character assassination, jeering, and there is a group of people who do actually talk with facts, and whom I almost always follow the links they posted. With those people yang mode character assassination and all that, it kinda leaves me disillusioned. It leaves me thinking no matter how "good" that person appears to be, there's always going to be some scandal waiting to happen, and you don't even know if it's the real thing or not, so, most of the time, I'm pretty much skeptical and cynical about anything. Tapi satu je, that I will feel very strongly about in politics, and I will state my stand, it is when religion is being misused for politics, when the line between a person's opinion and suruhan Tuhan is being blurred, that, I shall never agree with. Saya tak berkenan tengok kawan itu kawan ini sokong parti politik berlainan pastu calling each other kafir. It makes me sick.
Of course, sometimes I do express myself, and I tend to generalize, but bear in mind that I'm completely aware that you can't possibly generalize everything, I know and I am open to anything that doesn't fall under the generalization. The only reason I tend to generalize is simple, because it is reflective of the sample of people I have on Facebook, and for those people who don't fall under that generalization, and sedia maklum, that they aren't, tak perlu terasa lah, and it's no big deal pun. I just can't shut myself up, I say things as I please.
Okay, that was a far off tangent, but my point is, as much as I also believe in change, what needs to actually change is the way you approach politics itself. Dalam kalangan mahasiswa pun ada juga golongan yang jenis taksub parti, share this and that, but there is also golongan mahasiswa who are keen on creating intellectual discussions and debate, and respect each others' opinions. Ini commentary spesifik sikit, but from what I see, from the sample of people I have on Facebook, there is a growing awareness amongst the mahasiswa and a majority of them are supporting parties (or party?) which appeal to them because it upholds values of liberty and justice as understood by these mahasiswa. They are starting to find confidence in themselves to talk about ideas. All those stuff yang menakut-nakutkan pasal kejatuhan melayu, Islam etc is old cheese. Not many people buy into that now, well, maybe there still are ..
Yet even so, despite that optimistic-sounding statement, I still do see some of these efforts to have intellectual discussions still gets reduced to the old way politics of calling names bringing out skeletons from the closets, either young or old. It always gets reduced to merely discussing about this scandal and that. It can't be helped, I have people from both ways of approaching politics. Then again, the system has been like that. Both the top and the bottom, and it takes a heck of a lot of effort to change the way people talk about politics.
Sometimes I don't know if people really are getting politically mature, or if it's just an easier thing to do to put the blame on the political leaders (regardless of whichever party they are from) and find ways to discredit them to prove them unfit for leadership than actually talking about real issues. As for me, I personally believe that whichever leader you elect comes from that same system that you are a part of. Kalau pemimpin dia macam tu, sebab datangnya daripada kalangan yang macam itu lah. If the system doesn't change, the leader can only do so much, no matter how good he/she is. After all, politics is merely the reflection of the people.
I personally don't believe that there is a need to be "Orang Parti A" or "Orang Parti B". I am only that "orang" for the time lapsing between pangkah-ing the voting paper and putting it into the ballot. Political affiliations is not part of my religion to me untuk diuar-uarkan, dipertahankan mati-matian. (not voting this year. tak cukup umur, by the way).
I may want to ubah, but I want to ubah CARA orang (rakyat, pemimpin, etc) berpolitik even more than anything, regardless of mana-mana parti pun.
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