Haiya!

Recently I heard some very silly things from some very silly people. I've decided that from now on, I will be jotting these down here in my blog just so that I will remember them and perhaps get a few laughs when I re-read them later. It is also good because I just want to be reminded of the things I find funny NOW- because, I know this is a little weird - I want to see if I find them funny in the future.

1. During one of the meetings with the Muslim mothers, somebody objected the idea of getting a clown for the Eid Fun Day we were organising. Her reason was that a clown is NOT Islamic because a clown does "magic tricks".

Hehehe...no wonder some of these people are so backwards and will continue to be so in their next generation - their children will not be able to recognise the difference between 'black magic' and simple tricks..sigh. Thank goodness not too many people agreed with her and we got the clown for the event anyway and of course, the children loved the clown.

2. Someone came to pray in my house and I offered my sons' room for this person to pray in. After looking at the many posters on the wall i.e. poster of types of dinosaurs, alphabets and cartoons, she asked me, "but what about the pictures?"
"What about them?" I asked her back.
"You can't pray in a room where there are pictures."
"Who said?" I challenged.
"Where I come from, the teachers say that."

Needless to say, I tried to convince her (malas nak elab what my arguments were because they were just too elementary) that that is ridiculous and so she prayed there anyway, but not before saying, "If God doesn't accept my prayers - it's your fault!" So I said, "You're clean, right? You're covered? And I can assure you that this room is clean. So why wouldn't He accept? God knows that you're not praying to the dinosaur!" (Inward sigh)

This is an example of culture confused with religion. Maybe where she comes from, where many of the population pray to pictures of their Gods in their various forms, their Islamic Religious teachers warned them not to pray with these pictures in the room - for fear of confusion. And the less informed folk translated this to absolutely no pictures wherever they pray - even a kids dinosaur poster on one of the walls. To me, this is ridiculous and makes the religion look awfully narrow and silly when it is so very concerned about trivial things like these.

3. At a PTA meeting recently, some loud voices wanted to have a parents only meeting in a separate place, NOT in the school - so that the meetings will not be overheard by any of the teachers. I raised my hand and said "But aren't we supposed to be working together with the teachers - don't we have the same goals and want the best for the children? We should be getting them to attend these meetings, not ensure that they cannot attend." After some other voices said their opinions on the matter, one narrow minded parent said, addressing me specifically, "But after the meeting, when the teachers start to talk behind our backs (about the things that they disagree upon etc. during these meetings), who's going to answer them?"

Sigh. Who cares if the teachers do that? As long as they do what they're suppose to do, and carry out the things that were agreed on during these meetings, right? The problem with my son's school is that is has too much politics. The parents bitch about the school management and they in turn bitch about the parents - it's my old boarding school all over again (only there, the teachers used to bitch about the students). When will these parents realise that without the cooperation of teachers and parents - their goals for their children in the school can never be achieved?

Haiya..