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Friday, September 26, 2008 Since Hari Raya Aidilfitri is just around the corner, this post shall be focused on the main Muslim culture which I've observed- Muslims can only consume food which is Halal. Do watch the following video for clearer illustrative purposes. A picture speaks a thousand words. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdguyMJprsA I was appalled by the conversations in the video. Clearly, the questions asked did not seem accidental. As most of us know, Muslims are forbidden from consuming pork, alcohol, blood, meat dedicated to false gods etc. The dietary laws for Muslims are very clear- Muslims can only consume food that is Halal. Still at times, questions like “What’s Halal?” will be asked. In Arabic, “Halal” simply means allowed or permissible. To make meat Halal, an animal or poultry has to be slaughtered in a ritual way known as Zibah. Apparently, the basic respect non-Muslims should have for the Muslims is to pay attention to what comes out from our mouth. After watching the video, even as a Chinese, I felt extremely ashamed of how those people in the video actually made fun of the Muslim Halal culture. Mentioning food which is forbidden for Muslims clearly showed how much respect they have for them. Not once, not twice, not thrice. It didn’t matter whether the characters in the video did it on purpose, or was it accidental. The point they brought across to the public was clear. They certainly did not show due respect for the Muslims. However, I did learn something from the video. When we live in a multi-racial/multi-culture society like Singapore, communicating with people from other races is inevitable. In order to have effective communications, we have to understand the different cultures and values of each and every racial group. Like what Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Men are respectable only as they respect”. Sources: 1) http://www.halalfoodauthority.co.uk/define.html 2) http://islam.about.com/cs/dietarylaw/a/halalfood.htm 3) http://www.youtube.com/ |
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Saturday, September 6, 2008 Singapore is a clean and green city. Do we credit it to the public, or the cleaners? Ideally, credits should be awarded to both. Unfortunately, this is not the case in reality. Simply take a quick walk down the streets. If you do spot litters along the streets, and the first thought that run through your mind is “Why aren’t the cleaners doing their job?” I’ll beg to differ. If each and every one of us were to act responsibly, we will still be living in a clean environment, with or without cleaners. So how much knowledge do people really have in regards to the cleaners’ job scopes? Do people really feel that they are responsible in keeping environments clean? Or do people really care? I guess the answer is probably no. Litterbugs leave traces whenever they go. Streets, buses, trains, shopping centres and even cinemas contain their traces. Hence, with the presence of increasing litters in Singapore, there exists an urgent need to educate the public on how to keep our environments clean, without relying on cleaners. A simple act of responsibility from each and every one of us will be more than sufficient. Moreover, cleaners are supposed to maintain cleanliness, instead of transforming places filled with litters to clean ones. An attitudinal survey will be necessary to collect information on whether people feel responsible in keeping places clean as well as their attitude towards cleaners. With these information on hand, I guess the process of converting our society from a graceless to a gracious one will be much easier. Ten minutes. That’s all the cleaning brigade has as cinemagoers walk out. We don’t need ten minutes to discard our litters, do we? |
