Respect.

These past few days, there's an uproar about the current Minister of Religious Affair's decree to not force restaurants/food stalls to close shop during Ramadan. Unlike his predecessors, who 'asked' food vendors to stop operating during fasting time in the 'spirit' of respect to the Muslim majority, the current Minister seems to believe that respect should be earned, not demanded or forced upon.

And I'm with him on this one.

Call me what you want. Normally, people will be quick to label me and those with similar thinking as a secular or liberal Muslim. And that is if they are somewhat kind. If not, the word 'infidel' usually comes to play. Well, whatever. My religion is my business with my Maker. He has the sole prerogative of judging me, and if I rub you the wrong way, take it up with Him.

But if you still insist on judging me, at least consider the facts prior to delivering the verdict, fair enough?

First of all, let's take a look at how it was done during the Prophet's time. Do correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the Prophet did not forbid his followers from selling food to non-Muslims during Ramadan, especially if that's how they earn their bread and butter. And what the Prophet did not do, if we do it and claim it in the name of Islam, wouldn't we be doing bid'ah instead..?

But let's argue that stopping people from selling food during Ramadan is not done as a religious practice, and therefore doesn't fall under heresy. That would lead us to the next question, what is your purpose of fasting? It's to be able to control and reign yourself away from the temptations of pleasure, right? So, if you forcefully remove and shut down all places that risk tempting you during Ramadan, then what is there to control yourself against, really? To use gaming analogy, if you want to level up, the best way is to go out and fight the enemies out there. But if you remove all the enemies, how can you gain the experience needed to level up? You'll just end up walking and wandering throughout the map gaining nothing.

Also, it's about the satisfaction you'll get at the end of it. Tell me which is more satisfying, facing a tough and challenging battle where you've almost lost several times in the process but still come out victorious; or breezing through an empty road and reaching the finish lane without anything happens that's worth mentioning.

And among the two winners above, which one earned your respect more?

Seriously, nobody likes a spoilt big baby. So don't be a soft baby that demands everything to be baby-proofed. Go learn from your mistakes and pains, and score yourself some respect.

Just make sure those mistakes are well worth it...  ;)

Rules are meant to be bent

There was, and still is, a big ruckus over the execution of some major drug traffickers yesterday. Most of those executed are foreigners, so their respective countries are at first sweetly pleading, then harshly threatening, and finally cursing with promises of lash-backs and generally throwing tantrums when their vain attempt to rescue their citizens' life failed miserably.

One Australian newspaper even went so far to create the following:

Personally, I disagree with that headline, and I'll let you be the judge of whether my reasoning is logical or not. Kindly remember this is about logic, not fairness.

Universally speaking, there's a very thin line between bravery and stupidity. An example would be charging with a fully loaded AK-47 into a throng of machete wielding hostiles, some may consider it brave. Doing so while knowing that the AK-47 is actually jammed, albeit being fully loaded, is, for lack of a better word, stupid.

It's basically the same with the Bali 9 drug traffickers. Knowingly smuggling drugs into a country having the death penalty in drug-related offenses is seriously dumb. Getting caught while doing it proved beyond a reasonable doubt of the stupidity involved. Nothing to do with bravery here. But of course changing "brave" with "stoopid" in that headline would somehow ruin the whole stout and supporting tone of the article, and most probably affect the sales negatively. We wouldn't want that now, would we?

Still, the rule is pretty simple. If you want to break laws, don't get caught. And if that simple rule is too hard for you, then perhaps you shouldn't be in the business of trying to break any. And perhaps you should resort to bending instead, Avatar style (the A'ang ones, not the blue guys). In general, when you bend something, it makes less conspicuous noise than breaking it. Helps with the trying-not-to-get-caught thingy.

To those of you arguing that the executions will do nothing to stop the drug trafficking, maybe you're right. But then again, maybe you're wrong. What the executions will do, at the very least, is to prove that Indonesia means business about drug trafficking, that the laws are not just there for shows. Perhaps that will give some sense into the drug traffickers. Perhaps then they will value their lives more and reconsider moving their business elsewhere. And millions of innocent children might be spared just by that.

And for those still trafficking on to Indonesia despite the executions, and those who think that drug-trafficking-and-getting-caught-and-getting-executed is the shining example of bravery deserving national praise in the papers, there might still be some hope left. After all, God must have really loved the stupid. Else, He wouldn't create so many, right..?