Saturday

Today all the kids except Sarah are with us in Malacca, which is something that does not happen often enough. I wish they are all here - especially Sarah. Mother made ketupat and I made rendang ayam so we had that for lunch today. Wan came last night - an hour after we arrived. Rizal came this afternoon, with Pohling and Sophia. They're going to a wedding tonight and taking Sophie with them. I wish they wouldn't but Rizal wants to show her off to his friends I suppose. I'm not really in favour 0f taking babies out at night- it makes them tired and after that they will have a tantrum or a crying jag. Anyway its their baby. Let them learn.
Sophia is already six months old and can already crawl. She can also sit by herself and although cries if she's tired or frustrated about something, is generally a happy child. I hope she stays that way.
My quran reading is improving - I can recognise most words now and can more or less read on my own. I only have problems with the kaf and pha as well as nun and ba, both of which look alike except that one has a mark either at the top or the bottom. If I can finish reading Al Baqarah by the end of this month I'll be very happy. Must finish the whole quran this year!!

Just thinking

Its almost two weeks now into the new year and already so many things have happened. Another little girl has been kidnapped, a five year old Malay girl from Kg Medan in PJ. It seems she was taken screaming in front of her older sister. And yet nobody saw? Nobody helped? I wonder...

I just hope that she will be found and it does not end up like the two other girls before her. What kind of society do we live in that little girls are not safe, even in their own backyards? I remember Shasha saying that in Tokyo, a large city with millions of people, she could walk home from the underground safely, even at night. In Singapore too it's safer than here in KL. Every year we hear of young girls being raped and murdered, or like little Nurin Jazlin last year murdered horrendously and trashed in a bag.

Is Malaysia sick? The things that occur here reminds me of that line from Hamlet -"something is rotten in the state of Denmark". We have one of the highest accident rates in the world, little girls get kidnapped almost regularly then murdered, little girls raped and murdered just meters from their home, children committing suicide because they cannot face failure...babies being killed by adults who may either be their own parents or relatives... what else can happen?

What kind of year do we expect? On the political front we will be facing the polls soon but I think the government will not change. It would take a real miracle for us to get a change of government, not an election. It's not that I have lost hope in this present one - I never had much hope in the beginning. I think Dr Mahathir got it correct the first time when he said (albeit too late to effect any change) that he wanted Najib for PM. But the trouble is will that have any effect? I doubt it. In fact it might have made things worse. The problems are too entrenched for Najib to make much of a mark. The corruption that is endless - either under the table or blatantly...and so many other things.

Talking of Bangsa Malaysia - can we ever have a bangsa Malaysia? I doubt it. The disunity is too deep, the unity too farcical. Of course it would be very nice if qwe could really think one nation, one race. But the Malays love their political power, the Chinese their economical power and the Indians? Dunno lah what they want. I want to believe that one day we can have one nation and one race but the distrust of the other races I think is not easy to overcome. We have to be fair - not just seen to be fair, not only in education and the economy but also in politics. Are we ready to do that?

Sophia

Went to see Sophie today at the house in Parkville. Heard that they may move house sometime in March so I thought might as well make the most of it while they are still here in KL. Once Sophie goes to Singapore it wont be so easy for me to visit probably. She's slightly more than 5 months now and can sit on her own too! She moves with a cute bunny half hop with her hands and short fat legs up in the air a bit. She's a nice weight I think though if I remember correctly Sarah was bigger - and taller. But she is fast for her age - to be able to sit properly n ow is really fast I think. She grabs at anything within reach and it will go first into her mouth. This is her being angry...