Sir Salman Mustdie......err...I mean Sir Salman Rushdie. That 3 letter word suffixed to the writer's name has caused an uproar and triggered protests in many parts of the Muslim world. Born to Muslim parents in Mumbai, the controversy he stirred will always be remembered generations after he's gone. And now a knighthood to boot?
UK has honoured a novelist, who will always be remembered as The writer with a death sentence over his head. I guess it's UK's right to honour him, no matter how trivial his works were to me. Apart from The Satanic Verses, for which he was sentenced to death, and whose sentence can not be repealed as the guy who sentenced him in the first place, Ayatollah Khomeini, is dead, I am hard-pressed to name his other literary works. I have yet to read The Satanic Verses and I have no inclination to do so at all.
My perplexed mind is still trying to understand the justifications for his knighthood. Granted, I'm no literary expert but to be given a knighthood for "Services to Literature" would mean he had to do something really grand. Probably, something on par with what Sir Isaac Newton achieved. Not only do I feel that he falls short of a deserving knighthood, he is nowhere close. Islamic-sensitivities aside, I can't think of his supposed services that warrants a knighthood apart from his sacreligious book. If controversy is the name of his justification, then UK deserves all the backlash it is geting right now.
Then again, I am a little surprised at the reactions coming from all over the world. Yes, I agree that it is deplorable and untimely that UK has decided to award him the knighthood. However, the reactions to the award are equally uncalled for and does nothing to alleviate the problem. What I mean to say is that in the face of Islamic extremism, such reactions are only playing into the hands of extremists. It is a widely accepted fact that extremism is misguided but still Muslims around the world are prone to such knee-jerk reactions. I'm sure Salman is sitting somewhere in London, drinking his cup of tea and having hearty laugh at all the furore that surrounds his knighthood.
I say let Salman get his knigthood. So what if some buffoons think he is a deserving recipient of such awards? It only serves to dilute the prestige of such an award when someone as controversial as Salman gets that award. Furthermore, it's not like he could command more respect or he'll get richer. I couldn't care less about it not because I don't care that my Prophet is slandered but I think there are bigger issues for us to worry about than some so-called literary giant's knighthood.
To Sir Salman Rushdie, good luck dealing with all the hatred and anger and possible assasinations attempts.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
LTA should designate a lane for As*****es
I'm back...
Back to talking about my pet peeve. No, it's not about my in-laws. It's about those inconsiderate drivers. In the space of less than 24 hours I have had 4 different vehicles try to sideswipe me. OK, I'll admit it's not as bad on hindsight. Still, they are dangerous and not forgetting a menace. Who cares if you are running late? The prerogative is on you to make ure you aren't late. That still doesn't give you the approval of the other road users to drive like you own the roads.
First, there was this taxi - it almost always is a taxi, isn't it? - who, along Bedok Reservoir Road, just past the viaduct, swerved into my lane when I was centimetres behind him, to his right. And without signalling too. I didn't honk at him because I kind of expected he would do that judging from the way he drove just moments earlier. He was changing lanes and can't stick to his lane. I wondered where he learnt to drive. Then there was another taxi, again, yesterday night along Bukit Batok Road swerved into my lane immediately upon signalling while I was centimeters behind him, again to his right. This time I did honk at him, hard - for 5 long seconds. He just gave a sheepish look and waved to say sorry - I think.
This morning along the PIE a 15-foot lorry swerved into my lane along the PIE also in the same situation as the 2 taxis the night before. I did honk at him, but soon he disappeared, swerving in and out of lanes at high speeds. The moment I saw him speed off, I just eased my foot off the pedal and went alongs with the rest of the traffic. Damn that guy was a maniac. The last guy to cross my path was a pickup along Lavendar Street opposite of Singapore Casket. Nice place to drive dangerously. In front of me was a motorcyclist who was riding in a leisurely manner on the middle lane. This pickup swerved beside the motorcyclist, forcing the motorcyclist to move to the right lane. And again, this was centimeters in fromnt of me. So, I honked. Then I overtook the pickup on his right and looked at him. And he stared back at me, as if saying What? You got a problem???
I was so pissed. Sometimes, I wish I could mount a camera on my dash and record all these and then forward it to the TP or LTA for them to take action. It just pisses me off that such people are allowed to drive. One can draw parallels between the number of assholes we have on the road and the number of accidents involving them. So, if we could take these assholes, accidents would be so much of a rarity. And while we're at it, why not have tougher penalties for drink drivers, reckless drivers and assholes. A designated lane for them or a permanent mark on their vehicles which sets them apart, so the rest of us could avoid them when we see them.
Well, I know there are bound to be such people wherever we go, but singling them out clearly would make it safer for the rest of us. I mean they are already doing that for molesters and rapists by publishing their pictures in the mass media. A permanent tag would make it easier to identify them in public rather than to depend on picture posted on the papers.
Back to talking about my pet peeve. No, it's not about my in-laws. It's about those inconsiderate drivers. In the space of less than 24 hours I have had 4 different vehicles try to sideswipe me. OK, I'll admit it's not as bad on hindsight. Still, they are dangerous and not forgetting a menace. Who cares if you are running late? The prerogative is on you to make ure you aren't late. That still doesn't give you the approval of the other road users to drive like you own the roads.
First, there was this taxi - it almost always is a taxi, isn't it? - who, along Bedok Reservoir Road, just past the viaduct, swerved into my lane when I was centimetres behind him, to his right. And without signalling too. I didn't honk at him because I kind of expected he would do that judging from the way he drove just moments earlier. He was changing lanes and can't stick to his lane. I wondered where he learnt to drive. Then there was another taxi, again, yesterday night along Bukit Batok Road swerved into my lane immediately upon signalling while I was centimeters behind him, again to his right. This time I did honk at him, hard - for 5 long seconds. He just gave a sheepish look and waved to say sorry - I think.
This morning along the PIE a 15-foot lorry swerved into my lane along the PIE also in the same situation as the 2 taxis the night before. I did honk at him, but soon he disappeared, swerving in and out of lanes at high speeds. The moment I saw him speed off, I just eased my foot off the pedal and went alongs with the rest of the traffic. Damn that guy was a maniac. The last guy to cross my path was a pickup along Lavendar Street opposite of Singapore Casket. Nice place to drive dangerously. In front of me was a motorcyclist who was riding in a leisurely manner on the middle lane. This pickup swerved beside the motorcyclist, forcing the motorcyclist to move to the right lane. And again, this was centimeters in fromnt of me. So, I honked. Then I overtook the pickup on his right and looked at him. And he stared back at me, as if saying What? You got a problem???
I was so pissed. Sometimes, I wish I could mount a camera on my dash and record all these and then forward it to the TP or LTA for them to take action. It just pisses me off that such people are allowed to drive. One can draw parallels between the number of assholes we have on the road and the number of accidents involving them. So, if we could take these assholes, accidents would be so much of a rarity. And while we're at it, why not have tougher penalties for drink drivers, reckless drivers and assholes. A designated lane for them or a permanent mark on their vehicles which sets them apart, so the rest of us could avoid them when we see them.
Well, I know there are bound to be such people wherever we go, but singling them out clearly would make it safer for the rest of us. I mean they are already doing that for molesters and rapists by publishing their pictures in the mass media. A permanent tag would make it easier to identify them in public rather than to depend on picture posted on the papers.
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