I Have Faith

I was browsing youtube and I came across loads of things from football skills to magic tricks to google tricks and I found some anti-faith clips. I got pissed off and here's my RANT.

BE FOREWARNED:

I AM NOT ON A "GURANTEED" STAIRWAY(can't help it) TO HEAVEN, AND I'M NOT DOING THIS TO SOMEHOW GET INTO GOD'S GOOD BOOKS.

I'M DOING THIS BECAUSE THIS PISSES ME OFF

Religion to me :

A knowledge of a greater power besides us. Yes, even people that believe in aliens being that greater power, to me, has found a religion. If people think winds and waves or Satan is the greater power, they too have found religion.

Faith:

Now, faith, to me is the manner of which we pay homage to that greater power; a ritual in accordance to religion. Therefore, we have all sorts of mannerisms and symbols of faith, reflecting religion, from praying 5 times a day and abstinence from meat to celibacy and offerings.

Building on this, I feel some youtubers are going a bit too far in dismissing OUR FAITH. Full marks for effort though after watching the audio-visual synchronization, the lengths of research...wow!

I just can't stand the fact that people who don't believe in God, regardless of how we address Him, can't accept the fact there are millions and millions of other people who actually DO believe.


What's up with the proving faith wrong through science?

There was one particular clip who claimed a scientific reason behind Jesus walking on water as, "...freeze water, it becomes ice, then walk on it." I trust the person who wrote and the people who saw the feat can tell ice from water. Moreover, they were on a BOAT...and i doubt they made freezers back then.

What's up with using philosophy to reason God's ability?

Here's the thingy : "If God was so great, could He build a rock so heavy, He can't lift it?"
The argument is if He can lift it, it means He failed to build a rock heavy enough, and if He can't lift it, He fails as a "understrengthed" God.

I think you can't compare the two comparatives on the account that you are comparing two totally different attributes; strength and architecture. Diagnostically, he can do both because they are of two different fields. He can build a rock so heavy because of his building skills and at the same time he can carry it because he has the strength.

The Bible is a work of fiction?

They argue that the Bible and I presume all other documented faith based books are fictitious because of the "unrealistic tales." The story of Abraham or Ibrahim's sacrifice for our Muslim brothers and sisters has been deemed fiction. Of course, we are going through blind faith, but if that is all we have...so be it!

So, in about 3000 years, as people begin to study our present culture and events, how do you think they are going to rate Hitler and gang? Maybe we wont need that long, in the space of 500 years, Hang Jebat has overtaken Hang Tuah to become the new hero.

Final word to faith haters, if we have lived our lives with strong belifs in what you call "bullshit", watching 7 minutes or 70 hours of your "revelations" will not swing us to your side. If for any reason you are right that there's no God and afterlife, well good for you, but I don't think you can really gloat seeing that there is no afterlife for you to gloat...and if you are wrong about God's existance, the afterlife or Heaven and Hell, well at least we can gloat wherever we meet :)

RM 2.70?

Am I supposed to be glad that the two-tiered subsidy didn't come to effect just because I drive a 1.8 Mazda? The increase in petrol price is another thing I needed to FUCK UP my idle Wednesday. Thanks so much!

Some honesty in the build up could have been nice and maybe a little easier to swallow. Nevertheles, knowing Pak Lah, a sudden and stiffening rise as such should have been anticipated. I guess history does repeat itself.

Lets take 3 examples:

1st : I will not get married...he does a while later
2nd : Parliment will not be dissolved tomorrow...next day, dissolved
3rd : There will be no increase(in petrol prices)...now we pay RM 2.70/l

4th : I will not step down...times like this I don't really mind

Have we elected a mind games freak to the helm?
Does he think we like playing guessing games?
Is "subliminal messages" a new national policy?

WHAT THE FUCK?

Even cops in Hindustan movies fire better warning shots.

Now comes the Ubah Gaya Hidup bullshit..
Personally, how else are we going to ubah gaya?

Plant vegetables at the empty spaces of our house and high rise units to plant hydroponic vegetables was their dumb suggestions. From working to the jammed up commute how are we going to upkeep our little kebun?

Along those lines...will the government suggest we start some swine-breeding at home instead of electing them to office? Or are we going to be the FIRST vegetarian country?

MALAYSIA BOLEH!

Are our bosses going to increase our wages to help with the NEW & IMPROVED(not) cost of living? Or do you prefer waiting till August when petrol is rumoured to go up another 30sen?

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

This kid's got some skill..
Check out..





California Dreaming





Whiter Shade of Pale





All You Need Is Love

Dear Emma

Dear Emma,

Thank you so much for dropping a line. If you also have a blog please forward me it's link, I'd love to read it and link it to mine. I guess you are doing fine... I'm responding to your comment not on a personal level nor is it meant to hit your fine country, our neighbour, Indonesia. This is just a part of the debate which I'm looking forward to continuing.

Anyhoo,

I do appreciate on the imput on some facts on the Indonesian market. You do realize that the Indonesian population is some 228 million people, which is roughly almost 10 times more then the estimated 27.5 million people. Therefore, I'd like you to analize the ratio of sales to the "market".

Of course everywhere will be talking about the volume of record sales but here, as we are speaking on local support, let us analyze on how many locals are really supporting the industry.
Even with Peter Pan's record of 3 million copies sold in Indonesia, it's actualy about only one in a million who is buying.

Their "rezeki" on being blessed with good looks or brilliant minds and making money out of it was never at question in the first place. Lets say if they had to rely solely on the music, how would they survive? I take back what I said on the reliability of the Indonesian bands on Malaysia to make them rich. My apologies there. I now agree Malaysia on it's own doesn't put food on the plate for the Indonesian bands, I'm not even questioning the Malaysian devotion towards Indonesian bands. I'm only asking my fellow Malaysians to look and love what we have.

Emma,

How would you feel if your local telco (in our case MAXIS) sponsors a stadium, theme park concert for foreign acts? Indonesian acts included...when on the other side we are struggling to get sponsors, permits, running into trouble with the cops, venues(always some hall or club) for our bands-established and upcoming to perform. Amy Search performed in Limkokwing, Butterfingers performing in Ruums soon.

Thanks Fly Fm for having the Campur Chart, but you could have banged the one year anniversary in a stadium or make it feel real Ozzfest, Woodstock like. Maybe next year...i hope!

Thanx Emma...hoping to hear from you soon.




p.s. Emma was kind enough to leave a comment clarifying some facts on my previous post Local Scene Blues

LIVE ROCK n ROLL!!!!

To all Rock fans...

LIVE!!

Blister at Backyard Pub, Hartamas

every Saturday in May

10.00pm till late

ONE NITE ONLY

@

Laundry Bar, The Curve, Damansara

22nd May 2008

10.00pm

Be there!!!

Local Scene Blues

Anyone ever heard of the band Radja? Samson maybe? The one that sings the song Kenangan Terindah? Or maybe you have heard Padi? I'm sure you've heard Dewa 19? Their song, Pupus? Kasidah Cinta? How about the band Peterpan or Sheila on 7?

Damn big names here in Malaysia rite? I mean loads of albums being sold, special concerts and awards all going to them. Give credit where its due right? So far, I have no real problems with the music they SELL (or do they call it play?). I kinda dig some of the tunes. Where are they from?

Well, this is a place to rant, and there will be some..

So...what's the real deal?

Indonesian bands here are very dominant to an extant that it overshadows our local acts. As I said, give credit where it's due, some Indonesian bands are good, but are they really as phenomenal back home in the streets of Jakarta?

The Malaysian general listener will automatically prefer music with Indonesian flavour. People actually prefer Radja and Samson and diss Spoon (not a real big fan of all 3). They play the same kind of music...and Malaysians prefer the one with Indonesian flavour. Well, here's a news flash.. Indonesian Pop/Rock bands' sales back in Indonesia are crap! They rely on us here in Malaysia to make them rich. People here worship the ground they walk on. It's ridiculous...but true.

How can this go on with radios and all blasting support your local scene. Well here's another nail in the back of the head... Have you heard Butterfingers on air? NO!! Our stations dedicate one pathetic chart a week and cramp the same old LOCAL ENGLISH bands in it! Why not let our bands mingle with the big boys of UK or the USA on air? Or are we giving our bands "preferential" treatment? Is there some kind of subliminal message saying our bands are not good enough to be played on our stations for our people to hear and enjoy (or critic..depends which side of the coin you prefer..you narcissistic b*stard..haha)

Speaking of not good enough...if lets say we had one band...local...playing the theme song for a international brand's promo...wouldn't that deserve some airtime which is not at bloody 3:45am when even the guards are asleep! Wouldn't it be cool having a band playing the theme for Nike? Well Seven Collar t-Shirt plays My Generation (not the Limp Bizkit version) and have we heard it on air? I don't think so...!

Outrage..at our local Anugerah Industri Musik, we have a special catergory for best Indonesian artiste. Do our bands get the same reception, honour there? Does the Best Malaysian Artiste Award get any recognition? NO!! Hell, I have reason to belive that our records are discarded over there.

Astro...what have you been doing all these years? Of all who won in reality music contests in Astro, Mawi is the only one seriously making it big...the arguement of whether he can sing or not, I wont discuss here. Is it the company policy to promote the wrong people? Of six Akademi Fantasias and three Blast Offs, I don't see anyone carrying their name without the tag "AF' behind their name besides Vince..You've got Khai AF, Adam AF, what the hell?

On that same note, how is pur local scene going to grow? Until when are our music going to be rated second class compared to Indonesia? Are we supposed to launch our songs outside of Malaysia and make it big outside..then only come back and play it on radio.

We've seen it with Guy Sebastian and Che'nelle. They migrate and make it big and here comes our local radios in line to play their songs. It doesn't matter if the artiste spent one hour here or a week, but as long as the artiste migarates and make it big...here comes the Anak Malaysia tag! BULLSHIT!!

From the way I see it, our musicians can kiss the dream of making it big locally goodbye, until we can make less of a mockery of Akademi Fantasia and promote really talented musicians. Thank God for youtube...

How About Us?

OK..I did some checking up and I found out that about 40% of the Klang Valley working class people who between 25-65 indulge in maybe once a fortnight or more at the local pub. May it be from listening to the Os Pombos in Ol' Skool Bistro on Fridays or the Zarzadias Brothers at Backyard Pub on Thursdays...heck come check us, Blister, out at Backyard Pub every Saturday in May (cheap publicity...haha), one question lingers...what lies for the future of the musicians?

We all got our EPF or government pension or some other pension plan, basically something to sustain us in our later years...the musicians, well they don't have an EPF deduction! These are the same people who go on night after night giving us songs as we sip or gulp our larger. No, I'm not ranting out at the people, nor am I ranting out at the pubs. All I propose is system where musicians are able to taste the long term joys of an EPF payout!

Why aren't musicians eligible?

• They are part-time employees at a certain pub depending on the duration of their contract.
• Pubs rotate the talent from time to time.
• Probably because it'll be too "leceh" to go back and forth to the EPF office for the paperwork.

Utter nonsense! Here's what should be done (credit to Mr Jude Singho):

• Form a body which will contribute directly to the EPF
• The musicians and pubs register themselves with the Body with a small fee(be realistic..nothing is free)
• The Body manages the EPF accounts of the musicians and pubs
• The Body contributes to the EPF every month from the money of the musicians and pubs
• When a band retires from the scene, the Body cmakes a withdrawal

Simple!