Irene Fernandez is a women and migrant rights activist in Malaysia. For more than ten years, Irene has been faced with a ‘criminal defamation’ charge (which has now been dropped) for having published a memorandum, asking the Malaysian government to look into alleged atrocities taking place in migrant camps in the country.

Aside from being an activist, which had led to her receiving the Right Livelihood Award in 2005, Irene is also a mother to three children, Camverra Jose Maliamauv, Tania Jo and Katrina Jorene, and several foster children. It is hard to imagine what goes on the mind of an activist like Irene, when she thinks of her children. During her sentencing at the initial trial in 2003, Irene was reported to have said:

I want my children and the children of all the people I work with as head of Tenaganita to enjoy and live in a society that is peaceful, where we do not fear state violence.

Irene’s role as a mother perhaps can best be reflected in the eyes of her daughter, Katrina Jorene, who wrote on the Micah Mandate (a Christian-based blog seeking to raise public interest advocacy):

I celebrate my mother who brought me up to be constantly vigilant in life and to be clear and maddeningly persistent for the truth and for what is just, true and right. I celebrate the countless heroes who have been present in my life especially my family members and the family at Tenaganita [the organization Irene Fernandez leads]. I celebrate all who have worked silently, tirelessly and with so much care all these years for the greater good of others.

It appears Irene’s teachings have caused at least one of her children to take on the same activist mantle as herself. Now Katrina writes advocacy pieces dealing with minority rights and protection.

Unlike Katrina Jorene, unfortunately, Alexander and Kim Aris, sons of Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, have not had the opportunity to learn from their mother for more than a decade. So strong was Ms Suu Kyi’s passion for Myanmar, she has spent close to fourteen years under detention in a lakeside villa in Yangon, choosing to stay for fear that the military junta would not allow her in again if she left. Womensphere, a blog by and about women, writes:

[Ms Suu Kyi] British husband, the Oxford scholar, Michael Aris, died of cancer in 1999 at the age of 53. She was unable to see him as he was dying – the junta refused to give him an entry visa, and she feared that, if she left Burma, she would not be allowed back in. She has not seen either of her two sons, now men in their thirties, for a decade.

Little has been written about (or by) Alexander or Kim. However, in 1991, Ms Suu Kyi’s older son, Alexander, accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on her behalf. Again, looking through the lens of her child, we might be able to better understand Ms Suu Kyi as a mother:

Speaking as her son, however, I would add that I personally believe that by her own dedication and personal sacrifice she has come to be a worthy symbol through whom the plight of all the people of Burma may be recognised. And no one must underestimate that plight.

…

We must also remember that [her] lonely struggle taking place in a heavily guarded compound in Rangoon is part of the much larger struggle, worldwide, for the emancipation of the human spirit from political tyranny and psychological subjection.

…

Although my mother is often described as a political dissident who strives by peaceful means for democratic change, we should remember that her quest is basically spiritual.

…

It is my hope that soon my mother will be able to share this feeling and to speak directly for herself instead of through me.

Meanwhile, many activist mothers in Asia still face persecution. For example, Fan Guijuan, whose house was said to have been demolished as a result of the Shanghai World Expo project, was arrested in Beijing and sent back to Shanghai, placed immediately in detention. Her son has no place to live, due to the demolition. Meanwhile, in the Philippines, Dr Edita Burgos, mother of Jonas Burgos, fights for justice for her activist son, who is said to have desaparecido (“disappeared”). Dr Burgos is the chair of Desaparecidos (Families of Desaparecidos for Justice), an organization seeking justice for the many unaccounted for, said to be a hallmark of the Arroyo regime.

Now, in Iran, humanitarian activist mothers are fast becoming global icons for human rights causes worldwide. In silent public protest, the ‘Mourning Mothers of Iran,’ known in Tehran as the ‘Mothers of Laleh,’ peaceably seek justice for their dead or incarcerated children.

“A mother is a mother as long as she lives.”

1Toilet policy is based on the 1Malaysia concept

Borrowing the branding of 1Malaysia, the state government of Terengganu recently introduces the ‘1Toilet' policy as a move for both teachers and students (of the same gender) to share toilets to promote a sense of oneness.

“When students share the toilets with the teacher, they (students) will believe that they are on par with academicians and this automatically invokes a sense of being important to an organisation, which, in this case, is the school,” says State Education, Higher Learning, Human Resource, Science and Technology Committee chairman Ahmad Razif Abd Rahman in local daily The Star.

The policy will also extend beyond the loo as teachers are also encouraged to eat at the school’s cafeteria with the students. It is a way for both parties to mingle during recess.

There were mixed reactions from the blogosphere regarding this topic. Some took it as a joke, while others thought it was a positive initiative.

Jeff Ooi, who is a prominent blogger and now a Member of Parliament says:

This time, 1Malaysia's product extension is where you pee.

Life And Ti(m)es Of Liang Seng could not believe that the state government is actually introducing the 1Toilet concept:

I would understand the sharing of canteen part. But to share toilet to instill a sense of belonging and create excellence? Come on. We can do better.

Journalist, blogger and Global Voices author Niki Cheong writes in his personal blog:

Which nutcase came up with this brilliant idea […] I think sharing a toilet with the teacher won’t help a student excel in his or her studies, proper teaching will!

What’s the heck is going on? Are we going to have to start eating 1ton mee after this? Or only listen to 1Buck Short? Or are we going to get people registering names like 1Sharina for birth certificates?

Thots Here And There believes that leaders should walk the talk before implementing any policies:

Why don't we start with the elite groups first before going to the majority? In my school, the upper crust get a special key to their own special toilet […] I know in certain companies in the private sectors there is such a privilege too. I remember a friend being all excited because he had reached that privileged level of having his own key to that special place! Now, if we want to implement such a thing as 1toilet in school - imagine queueing up with the students to use the toilet - let us start with the upper level of administrators first. Leaders talk about 1Malaysia…come on, walk the talk. Show us, leaders of Malaysia that we are one in all ways inclusive in the use of toilet!!!!

Voices Inside My Head explains the positive aspect of the 1Toilet policy:

When I was in school I did wonder the same thing, how come teachers get to pee in seperate toilets. Do they pee differently? Do they have something else we don’t have? I think it should be done across the board, even at work places top management sharing the same toilets! Perhaps even ministers should share the same toilets as other government staff and that’s when I would really say our politicians are walking the talk!

This author, via his personal blog, says:

Teachers should also lead by example and getting the best from their students. If a student is already having an inferiority complex feeling in the classroom, how can he/she invoke a sense of importance with the 1Toilet policy?

Do we have to share the toilet to have a feeling of oneness between students and teachers? Should this solidarity start in the classroom itself?

During my recent visit to his office in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur, he chats with ease on Skype with another blind friend attending a conference in Los Angeles. When he opens an e-mail, the JAWS screen-reading software installed on his Lenovo laptop reads out the content in a robotic voice, which he seems quite accustomed to. When told that The Nut Graph is in the midst of incorporating disabled-friendly features into its website, he goes to the website to find out how accessible it is to his screen reader and keyboard navigation, and provides some helpful feedback.
Rahim relies on the internet for e-mail, to chat with friends and contacts on Yahoo! Messenger and Skype — which is much cheaper than on telephone — and to find out what's happening in the rest of the nation and world. He is also planning to develop a website to promote his family's body massage and foot reflexology centre, run by the blind, in Penang.

The World Health Organization estimates 600 million people live with disabilities — accounting for one in ten people on the planet. The World Bank claims three-out-of-four disabled people live in the developing world. In any corner of the globe, poverty and disability are often interrelated. For instance, more than 18 percent of disabled adults in the United States live below the poverty line. In Canada, the unemployment rate among persons living with disabilities recently jumped to nearly 15 percent.

Because technologies and communication devices help reduce physical barriers, ICTs provide a model to allow disabled people to better integrate socially and economically into their communities, argues Deepak Bhatia of the World Bank. Another promise of ICTs is they provide access to knowledge, the ability to organize and network. Perhaps most importantly, the education sector is being slowly transformed by technology, providing greater access to a variety of learning materials.

Human development and ICT use were discussed in general terms at a recent Harvard University conference. At the upcoming ITU Telecom World 2009 in Geneva, Switzerland, UNESCO will showcase flourishing ICT applications for people with disabilities.

Yam TW is an automotive engineer from Malaysia who lost his vision last year. At his blog, My Blind Sight, he writes about the importance of technical advances to help people living with disabilities.

Malaysia O Malaysia.. The rapid technological advances today have changed and impacted the lives of so many people, particularly the disabled. For the blind and the visually impaired, medical scientists and researchers, particularly from the west, are excited about the vast opportunities that can be explored and tapped in helping the blind to restore some level of sight. While it is important to create awareness in preventing sight loss among the rakyat(citizens), it is equally important too that more research work to be done in helping those already inflicted, blind due to various medical illness and causes. It is good to have modern assistive, both physical and ICT tools, which undoubtedly will enhance the independence of those concerned in their daily lives.

A few more examples of appropriate technology come from the blog Public dreams of a blind ICT user:

Sometimes dreams become reality, but first they must be dreamed. Hopefully I can find other active eInclusion dreamers in Europe.

I am dreaming of a fully accessible and usable Wikipedia for all. I am working for an accessibility project at the German Wikipedia and for example, on a Wikipedia help page for blind users. Wikipedia is an important part of the information society and should be supported:
http://www.epractice.eu/blog/154
I am dreaming of an independent and multi-lingual Blind Wiki with optimized user interface for blind readers and contributors:
http://blind.wikia.com/wiki/Blind_Wiki:About
I am dreaming of an accessible and affordable mobile ICT device for the needs of blind persons. In the last 8 months, I have written hundreds of direct mails and posted lots of blog comments to inform disseminators and decision makers about the topic but it's a hard and sometimes demotivating work:
http://blind.wikia.com/wiki/Open_Letter_Initiative

The list goes on.

From the United States, Wheel Chair Kamikaze explains the importance of voice recognition tools to help him type and blog.

Multiple Sclerosis is a thief. It is indiscriminate in its larceny, robbing its victims of both the profound and the trivial. The disease has stolen from me elements that were once the very foundations of my life (my career, a large part of my social life, the expectation that I would one day learn to juggle), and things that by comparison might seem somewhat slight, like the ability to type.

Since my right hand now has about as much strength and dexterity as a latke, typing has become a strictly one-handed affair. I was never that great a typist to begin with…

When MS robbed me of the use of my right hand, it made typing, which had always been an arduous two fingered affair anyway, into a one fingered nightmare. My ability to communicate via the QWERTY keyboard was virtually eliminated, a major handicap in this day of Internet bulletin boards, e-mail, and instant messaging. How then, the astute reader may ask, am I able to compose the drivel that I post to this blog?

The answer comes in the form of an amazing piece of technology, a voice recognition software program called Dragon NaturallySpeaking. This wonder allows me to simply speak my thoughts, and see them magically transcribed onto my computer screen. It's like something out of Harry Potter, but without all of the crazy protesters claiming that it promotes Satan.

Without Dragon, I would have been rendered mute to the world of the Internet, and instead would have been left only to rant at Melvin, the giant Kleenex who is my invisible friend. The program has relieved me entirely of the need to type, and if I were to wake up 100% healthy tomorrow, I'd continue using it.

Deaf communities in most developing countries face similar problems, writes Lourdes Pietrosemoli. “One of them is the lack of programmes specifically designed for the local Sign Languages of their communities.”

In Venezuela for example, although the Constitution states the right of linguistic minorities (and the deaf community is globally regarded as such) to receive education in their own language, in practice this is rarely accomplished because, on the one hand, there are no professionals who appropriately handle the two languages involved: Spanish and Venezuelan Sign Language (LSV) and, on the other hand, there are no curricula tailored to the needs of the deaf.

However, Pietrosemoli describes how six deaf participants took part in a IT Essentials training by the Cisco Networking Academy in Merida, Venezuela. It went so well, Pietrosemoli says the idea could be exported abroad.

This course was a milestone for the deaf in our city, who not only acquired basic tools for their individual development, but also the mechanisms to transmit the acquired knowledge to other deaf people in the community.

At the time of this report, the certified deaf students are highly committed to the project of transmitting knowledge to others in the deaf community and a training course to acquire the necessary tools to teach IT Essentials in the community has already been scheduled. With this last step, the potential future problems with (hearing) interpreters are circumvented. Moreover, researchers from the Impairment and Communication project have planned a training workshop on the use of the voice synthesis software which will take place next week. In short, this experience has represented what real human networking is about. More than a happy ending, it is an excellent start.

Maureen de la Cruz, who blogs at Law and ICT reports how common it is now for people living with disabilities to become acquainted with technology, making it easier to bridge the digital divide.

My friends Jay and Rene are quintessential geeks, with one interesting difference: they surf the Internet, use computers and access all their features through a special text-to-speech software. With their virtuoso touch-typing skills and sometimes with the monitor turned off (they don't need it anyway!), they have become expert programmers and have even experimented with web design and adapting compatible open-source software for use with text-to-speech programs. Jay is the first totally blind Computer Science graduate in the Philippines and works from home as a web content writer, and Rene now instructs other low-vision students as a member of ATRIEV's [Adaptive Technology for the Rehabilitation, Integration, and Empowerment of the Visually Impaired] staff. Both of them have attended and given training sessions and specialized courses on adaptive technology locally and abroad.

…Schools and companies often think they have to buy expensive equipment or make extensive technical and logistical adjustments to accommodate PWDs [Persons with disabilities]. As pointed out by blind architect Jaime Silva, buildings and public transportation facilities do not even comply with basic legal requirements such as providing wheelchair ramps or granting discounted fares to people with disabilities. Technology, however, is constantly opening up new doors for people like my cool, talented visually impaired friends. I certainly hope that the digital divide may yet be bridged not just for the economically disadvantaged, but that ICT may help to break down the barriers caused by physical limitations as well.

From the ICTDev Dot Org blog comes a story about Dipendra Manocha, a software developer who created open-source screen reading software in Hindi and other South East Asian languages.

Based on the premise that computer technology was not meant only for the wealthy, Dipendra has changed the way people with print disability read and write. Accessible multimedia is ideal for people with disabilities as well as for the general public to share information and knowledge world wide. The technology is now being introduced in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal as well as India, which provides the exciting challenge of working in 22 languages as well as amongst vast geographical and cultural diversities. Dipendra is deeply dedicated to continue using technology as a catalyst to support the global sharing of human knowledge in the information society, and because of his focus on low-cost and open source technology, his work is highly replicable.

For all the anecdotes and blog posts on the role ICTs play in providing disabled people more access to technologies, I failed to find any statistics detailing the penetration of ICTs into this global community. Participants of the Harvard conference debated the merits of private enterprise pushing and governments and international organizations pulling the development of ICTs forward. Yet we still don’t know what’s driving ICTs into this field or their efficacy in increasing the scale of human and economic development for people living with disabilities. If you do, we’d like to hear from you.

McCurry, which opened in 1999, was sued by McDonald's in 2001. According to the owners of McCurry, the “Mc” prefix in the restaurant’s name stands for Malaysian Chicken Curry.

Here are some reactions of bloggers to the historic court ruling:

As Suanie Sees It believes that some Davids in David vs Goliath fights are merely opportunists:

I'm like any other David, I love a good triumph over Goliaths. But sometimes I feel that certain Davids are merely opportunists, and when confronted they would argue that the Goliaths are major international corporations and have endless money, hence could afford to bully them. Of course there are many Goliaths who do that and should be stumped, but in some cases the Davids are no better. When it comes to McDonald’s vs McCurry, I feel that this is one of them

Commenting on a post, Melissa believes that many people know that McCurry is different from McDonald’s:

Of course they were totally riding on McDonalds’ wave, but considering the food they serve is completely different and I’m sure a lot of people know how different they both are and don’t associate them with each other, I guess I don’t see a problem with it

Eyeris wonders why McDonald’s did not sue another local “Mc” restaurant:

There’s another restaurant in Jelatek called McKandar… but just because it’s not as popular as McCurry, I suppose McD’s didn’t bother suing them. So does this mean McD’s only sues companies with the ‘Mc’ if they are doing well, perhaps better than any nearby McD outlets? Hmmm

Anonymous X advises McCurry to open outlets in the US and UK

“McCurry” should really consider expanding its business to US & UK. Many love to read such a heart-warming story about how a giant multinational company is utterly embarrassed by being so picky against a local enterprise who just wants to use the prefix “Mc”.

It's just a prefix, for goodness' sake!

Carl Parkes fears McCurry-like restaurants will open in other Asian countries

Silly stuff, but if McDonalds doesn't defend it's franchise around the world, we might see McSatays in Bali, McAdobo in Manila, and McSomTam in Bangkok.

The Bluesman asks if other local restaurants will be inspired by McCurry’s victory

Will there be other outlets wanting to use the prefix ‘Mc' now that the prefix appears to be no more a monopoly by the McDonald's. My favourite siamese restaurant Mek Habsah TomYam maybe wanting to change their name to McHabsah TomYam to lend themselves with some international credence or something. Or maybe we can now have other ‘Mc' related names in our other local food chains say like McNasiLemak, McSatay, McRotiCanai, McFriedKwayTiau, McChickenRice, and so the challenge to McDonald's seems endless.

The blogger writes that consumers will decide if McCurry clones will survive the market

But business is still business, which means that finally it's the people like us, the customers, who will decide as to whether or not any business concern will continue to exist in the market place.

My Journal theorizes on why McDonald’s was persistent in its suit versus McCurry

I think, McDonald insist on pursuing this matter because they also one day would roll out their new product called McCurry. Since they also lost the battle, they have to give their dish another name, may be “McDonald Curry”.

After learning about the court ruling, Malaysian Life exclaims

Wow, I don't believe it but it's true. I guess it is possible to beat an international company in a lawsuit.

Twitter reactions from Malaysia:

dannyfoo: Did McDonalds realize their suit just gives McCurry free publicity and bigger awareness?
hasyudeen: When it comes to defending your rights, do not lose hope!
obel1: the new international foodie destination: McCurry
IamMalaysian: OKAY. So, McDonald's loses legal battle with Malaysia's McCurry. But who the hell cares?! Enuf already!
davinarul: McD might sue McCurry again if they sell wild boar, ‘cos Kaattu Pandi sounds too much like Quarter Pounder
davinarul: Does this open the door for McCurry to offer Egg McThosai, Sardine McChanai (with cheese), Moru shake and Tairu Twist?
altimet: I'm going there for some damn McCurry, damn it!
ZhiQ: nasty clown! now way any sane Malaysian can get confuse with McCurry, thinkin it's McD. me McDontKnow lah. lol!

PAS Youth issued this statement in their website, the excerpts of which were translated by myAsylum

This concert is a big insult to Malaysia, and to Muslims that are observing the holy month of Ramadhan.

Firstly, Muslims are facing a month of religious observance, full of dignity and blessings. It should not be contaminated by a concert like this, that brings in a foreign group artiste who definitely has no sensitivity whatsoever towards the local community. Surely, this concert will make the community idle and careless, in fact damage their morals and character.

These types of concerts will not help motivate the people to become good citizens, with high morals and competitiveness, but instead will weaken their morals and mental strength, and at the same time will drag them down to drown in the turbulence of lust.

Jonathan Ong attacks the religious bigotry of PAS Youth

I urge my fellow Malaysians not to attack the religion but the religious bigotry of PAS Youth.

If PAS Youth feels that the concert is not suitable for Muslims, then the most reasonable and practical thing to do is to advise Muslims to simply not attend the event. They should be considerate that there are also other Malaysians who do not observe the Ramadhan and would love to see their favourite band live. Has PAS Youth forgotten that Malaysia is not 100% Muslim?

Niki Cheong admits having “sinned” for watching concerts in the past

Forgive me, for I have sinned.
I have two confessions. The first is worst than the second, in my eyes at least. PAS doesn’t seem to agree.
1. I actually like Michael Learns to Rock. I grew up listening to 25 Minutes, The Actor and Paint My Love. I even have their CDs. I know, I know … judge me now.
2. I’ve actually even gone to their concerts. Twice.
Well, if PAS Youth is right, then my #2 confession means that I have sinned. They have called for a ban of Michael Learns to Rock’s Eternity Tour 2009 in Genting Highlands
Then again, I’m not a Muslim but I am a Malaysian. It would appear that their contention is that the concert, if held, would be a major insult to Malaysia and Muslims observing Ramadhan.

Klews believes the concert is less insulting because it will be staged after fasting hours:

What makes it strange and inadequate was that instead of asking for a postponement of the concert, they are threatening to prevent the whole event by any means necessary.

True, they may stake a claim that it was inappropriate to have such an event during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. But it would do little harm, much less an insult, as the concert would be held after fasting hour

Prissy's Evil Lair disagrees with PAS Youth:

How the hell is MLTR threatening Muslim's dignity!? Wow. DUMB.

Twitter reactions to the proposed concert ban:

vernadium1: PAS Youth calls for ban on MLTR concert. Thank you for shoving our country back to the dinosaur age. Fucking pathetic.
meeshly: Why #PAS Youth hates #MLTR #2 - they're Danish, there4 they're evil… like butter cookies

Malaysian Muslims can’t also watch the Black Eyed Peas concert because the show is sponsored by an alcohol company. The concert promotion website asks visitors

“Are you a non-Muslim aged 18 years and above?” and if the response is no, access is not allowed.

Wong Chun Wai notes that the decision to ban Muslims from attending concerts is unprecedented in Malaysia

Black Eyed Peas is performing but wait - it's only for non-Muslims and naturally Muslim fans are fuming. The no Muslim decision is reportedly imposed by the Information, Communication and Culture Ministry.

Muslims, too, want to be there to enjoy the concert but that does not mean that they have to drink. They just want to have a good time, that's all. But the corporate world is playing safe now. Such”non-Muslims only” restriction is usually placed at Christian functions and meetings, especially for faith-healing sessions, but never for a concert. It's unprecedented but that's what the authorities want.

Coffee Conversations writes about the state of freedom in Malaysia

Here’s to our forefathers and the freedom fighters. We might be independent, but we are yet to be free.

The simplest form of joy, music is restricted to us. Numerous artistes surely had refused offers to perform in our country in frustration over the silly decency rule. Muslims are banned from attending certain concerts just because the sponsors happened to be in the alcohol industry.

A little mention of concert sends them into a berserk, no matter that the band is harmless Michael Learns to Rock.

Ramadan Kareem…from the White House?

One popular topic amongst bloggers this year is U.S. President Obama's Ramadan speech, in which he wished all Muslims a blessed Ramadan. Middle East Blog, whose author is Egyptian, appreciates Obama's sentiment but wishes for a bit more:

Obama is a charming, charming talker. He peppers his words with Islamic references to both make Muslims feel that he understands them and their religion and is educating others about the faith as well. He highlights the most significant issues in the Muslim world – the war in Iraq and the Israel/Palestine conflict. He even draws on fears that many Muslims have about how Swine flu may affect making Hajj (pilgrimage) this year.

Of course, I take all this in the way it’s supposed to be taken. Obama is doing a brilliant job at trying to reach out to Muslims through words. However, I can’t help but feel that speeches such as this one merely gloss over the lack of action that he promised us.

Egyptian chronicles has mixed feelings about the speech as well, but adds a fun fact:

Allah Akram* president Obama , another speech to the Muslim world , this time it is short yet with too many points : Iraq, Palestine , and the Muslim world. Nice short smart speech for sure.

By the way the most expensive “ LE 18”and finest dates in Egypt is called Obama this Ramadan ;)

Reading the Qur'an

Beyond fasting, Ramadan is a time for reading (or re-reading) the Qur'an. Special prayers for Qur'an recitation are held, with the intent of reading one thirtieth of the Qur'an each night for the entire month. Some bloggers are writing about the experience.

bint battuta (Bahrain), who is undertaking the project of reading the Qur'an in Arabic during Ramadan, writes her first post on the experience:

A strange thing happened yesterday. As I was reading the Qur'an, listening simultaneously to the sheikh reciting, I found tears running down my cheeks. Before this is misinterpreted by anyone, it was simply because I was moved by the beauty of the Arabic. It's true that I am sensitive to language - it is my life - and that words, beautiful or ugly, are able to affect me deeply, but I was surprised to experience such a strong reaction.

Malaysian Anas Zubedy has initiated a project called “Let's Read the Qur'an” for Muslims and non-Muslims alike to “read the Quran in the language they understand most and find in it areas of common value for our day to day living.”

HoongLing, from Malaysia, is taking part in the project, and even fasting. Of the experience, she writes:

I have “announced” of my fasting this Ramadhan through facebook. Lots of feedbacks and it was intriguing to see the comments of many friends. No, I am not a Muslim but I am a bangsa Malaysia, when asked am I a Muslim (therefore fasting).

Fasting during Ramadhan isn't new to me. I did this as soon as I have the liberty to cook and sahur at 5am. Puasa for 4 years during Ramadhan and then stopped for 6 years due to gastric. This year, I am back on track. My colleague suddenly asked me today, the reason I fast.

The answer was simple. I was a church-goer for 6 years, apparently to learn and improve English and then only discovered Buddhism when I was 13 years old. Buddhism (yes, I am a Buddhist) encourages Buddhists to go search and find out about other religions before deciding one that is right for him/her. With this “freedom” of choice and Malaysia being one of the easiest place on earth to learn diversified cultures and religions, so why not? I went on to learn about Islam and eventually practise them in daily live.

Difficulties During Ramadan

Although most Muslims are grateful for the arrival of Ramadan and the challenges it brings, life is ongoing and it is impossible to escape from its difficulties at times. An American Muslim in Morocco is a blogger experiencing her first Ramadan in the Muslim North African country, and is experiencing some disappointments. She laments:

Here’s what I imagined…that family’s prayed together at each and every call to prayer; that people greeted each other with As Salam Alaikum on the street, so much so that I would have trouble keeping up with the number of people we passed; that people would be more willing to help each other; and that the level of respect youth had for elders was eons beyond American kids. I imagined that no one drank, no one tried to cheat another, and I imagined that the the stares and comments American women complain about where figments of their imagination.

Here’s what I found…teenage girls wearing the tightest revealing clothes while walking next to their fully covered mothers in veils and djellabas; dirty streets where people litter forgetting that Allah gave them this Earth to live on and care for; people having to fend for their lives to cross the street as cars speed toward them not even bothering to slow down; and so many people drinking that they have to dry-out for 40 days before Ramadan…

From Palestine, the stories are more complicated. In Gaza, noting the poor quality of fresh food, and the effects of the Israeli blockade on the fishing industry and medical practices, says:

With all of these facts and clear evidence of the systematic destruction of Palestinians lives and means of existence in Gaza, one can hardly expect Ramadan to be filled with joy as in former years.

Reflection

Lastly, Ramadan is a time of reflection, and many blog posts during this time reflect that fact. Canadian Sana of KABOBfest, wishes readers a happy Ramadan, reminding them:

We are reminded briefly of the pains of millions around the world, many in our own backyards and on our streets, suffer without the comfort of knowing that at the end of the day there is going to be a meal waiting to fill the roaring stomachs. We fast to starve ourselves – starve us of our egos, our materialism, and our individualism. When we fast we experience, together, the realities of an empty stomach and the realities of a fed soul. And of course, take this month of communal dinners and support to get to know your brethren – Muslim or not. Starve yourself of your shyness, your lethargy and your inhibitions.

From Indonesia, Titus Jonathan reminds us to be happy:

Ramadan will always a beautiful month if people offer smile each others. Let the smile becomes our home where we are able to take some rest on the hot earth and share kindness each other, not only for a month, but also for another eleven months onward. If smiles exist everywhere in Ramadan, everyone will always miss Ramadan, and expect to come again, soon.

Happy Ramadan, with an outpouring of smile everywhere.

Finally, from Syria, Abu Fares leaves us with a lovely reflection:

I hope we work on eradicating the disparity between the rich and poor so that the wealthy don't feel that they are doing the needy a favor with their alms.

I hope we become free to live the way we choose to and liberate our minds from the vice of judging others.

I hope we believe in ourselves enough not to wait for miracles to happen but instead work out butts off to make viable wonders come true.

I hope we come to terms with reality, cherish the physical world and see the inherent beauty of the universe with wonderment and joy not in awe and fear. ex nihilo nihil fit.

I hope we never lose the impulse to learn, the will to travel and the urge to discover the unknown.

I hope we reach the point when no one believes that it's worth dying or killing for a cause.

I hope that no man has to toil for bread, no child sleeps unfed and no woman is coerced in bed.

*”Allah Akram” means “Allah (God) is most generous”