Bad Parking and Creative Public Retribution - a rant of sorts

Use your brain.. use your brain...

Bad Parking. A couple of days ago, me and Heche were having a post-work drink at our neighbourhood bistro. Suddenly the peace was broken by the incessant honking of obviously disgruntled and angry drivers. Being the busybody that I am, I investigated the uproar and saw that a Perdana (a Malaysian saloon), illegally parked, was blocking the small side-road where our bistro was situated. The driver finally gave up and drove away.

After our brief soiree we passed by the offending car, and saw a note paper slipped in the windscreen wipers. hurriedly scribbled the writer advised the driver of the Perdana to "Guna Otak" which translated means "Please use your brain."

The Perdana driver ought to be thankful for this civic-conscious note of advise. For I have seen other more vigilante-esque reaction to bad parking in my neighbourhood. I saw one old lorry trying to pass by a corner where one car was blocking the appropriate entry. The lorry move forward and backwards, forward and backwards, turning bit by bit trying to get in, but alas to no avail. By that time a small crowd was already assembled and they were egging the lorry driver to "Jalaan... Langgar saja... langgar saja..." (Go on... Just hit the car). Collectively motivated that way, the driver did as he was told and his lorry (already beat-up and ridden with dents and scratches) grazed and dented the car's rear. The crowd cheered and clapped. 

On another instant, at the very same illegal parking spot, I saw a big municipal rubbish bin placed on top of the roof of a car. How I would love to have seen the look on the owner's face when he saw that creative public shaming sitting on his / her beautiful car!

Take a picture! This is rare sight in my neighbourhood.

The people who work in my neighbourhood of Desa Sri Hartamas are not mean-spirited at all. For we tolerate and sometimes park illegally ourselves because there is just not enough parking for everyone. But even when you do something illegal, you must be sensible and considerate. And anyway, I have been fined more times for not displaying my parking ticket than for being illegally parked on a yellow line. So at the end of the day, the enforcement unit of our municipality are more concerned with their parking collection than the safety and convenience of road-users. Because really, had they been thoughtful of the needs of the people, they would not have permitted such dense development of this neighbourhood without providing for adequate parking spaces. And before you say that we should take the public transport, let me share with you that Desa Sri Hartamas is one of the least serviced area in my city with only a couple of buses piling this route. It is ridiculous.

Hmm. Quite a rant.

Have a beautiful day, sunshine. And please park sensibly, even if illegally.

wa min Allah at-taufiq

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

The Stonehenge of Saribas - Pictures tell Stories

The Stonehenge of Saribas

Druids this way came. But they found no rocks or stones large enough. So they made do with leftover timber and a large diesel tank.

The lorries patiently await the arrival of barges loaded with granite from the quarry sites some miles downriver. They are used to pave the hundreds of miles of the giant oil palm estates here.

No, these are not neglected cloth lines. These beautiful pink flower plants are what the planters call 'beneficial' plants. They attract the sort of predatory insects which keep down the population of harmful bugs (weevils and others) that would attack the leaf and fruit. Apart from bugs, rats and mice are a major problem. For the rodent problem, the natural defenses are snakes and the biawaks (a large lizard). But the planters say that they have not sighted many biawaks. They also tried to introduce owls, which are superb rat catchers. But strangely, the newcomers keep going missing. They suspect that the natives may be shooting them down. But that is mere speculation.

Growing anything anywhere on a large scale is often challenging. And for palm oil in peat soil it is doubly difficult. Water level is required to be kept at a constant level. It is the nature of peat that if it loses too much water it loses the ability to regain the original moisture level, even if you are able to increase the water table. Small waterlocks are built on the estate watering system. The still water encourages the growth of algea on the surface, that is why it is often bright green.

Crossing the Batang Saribas (Saribas River). At this spot it's more than a kilometre wide.

Saribas will forever be ingrained in my mind as the place where I saw heaven reflected on the still water of our earth. I also witnessed the strong hearts and limbs of men and women who are trying their very best to carve a living from the yielding earth. May we respect mother nature and her giving ways, and not take too much from her, to leave her barren for our children and grandchildren...

Have a sunny Sunday, sunshine.

Pax Taufiqa

The Carbon Footprints of Muhammad

Muhammad was the first
To leave carbon footprints,
Long ago he wandered across
The desert of my heart,

Leaving behind diamonds
Twinkling like stars
In the night sky,

One was called Abu Bakar,
Another Omar, the third was Usman,
The fourth, Ali, Hassan, Hussein
And thereafer more
And more and
more.

Prose is from current and untitled chapter. It is a flower from the lore of Sufis that the Companions of the Prophets, are like the stars in the desert twilight, follow any one of them, and surely he will lead you to the Prophet, to God, to Love.

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So, I beg you, as one tired wanderer to another, look for the stars, high in the celestial sky, or in the closeness of your own heart... they are there, all of them.

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For if God can be contained in the heart of a true believer, what more His Friends and Saints?!

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Pax Taufica.