When 9/11 and 7/7 occurred, some Malaysian bloggers ‘flew’ the Stripe & Stars and the Union Jack on their blogsite. That’s commendable and symbolic of the universal sympathy and ‘togetherness’ with the victims and particularly their sorrowful families.
Now we have the dreadful bombings at Sharm el Sheik in Egypt where 88 victims of various nationalities perished. On a daily basis, Iraqis have been slaughtered on a scale far worse that what London or New York had suffered. The Afghans too have suffered members of their families becoming that dreadful American term 'collateral damage' or the more vogue classification 'terrorist suspects', to American bombings, reckless shooting and Gestapo-style torturing.
All were victims of terrorism, like the NY-ers and Londoners.
I hope to see the Egyptian, Iraqi and Afghan flags flying at those websites, or I’ll be forced to think that those bloggers are suffering from severe cultural cringe, by demonstrating respect only for victims of terrorism in the West.
I realise we live in Boleh-Land, but at least let's not make it into Bodek-Land.
Yeh, how about starting with yours? (Because if I'm NOT mistaken, you did flag off after the recnt London bombs; I stand corrected.
ReplyDeleteI don't fly no flag. Compassion or empathy is "IN" my heart, my being , my consciousness.
You have been sadly mistaken. I don't fly flags or anything - I don't have the inclination nor the technical ability ;-) I can't even post a picture (still taking lessons from more knowledgeable friends - took me a long while to even organise my own blog). But I promise you that if I have the technical know-how and facilities I'll post things to reflect my conscience, but never my subservience.
ReplyDeleteYour "being" supports my point, that we should be compassionate to all, whther Londoners, New Yorkers, Egyptians, Iraqis, Israelis, Afghans or anyone who has been a victim of terrorism - this is not to say we ignore what might have been the real cause of those crazy acts, like what some politicians like Blair are doing.
If we want to post a flag to honour the victims out of respect for victims, we could be more embracing and not just choose those to be obsequious to some western countries. That is the thrust of my message.
I think what KT meant is there are certain somebodies in Malaysian blogosphere (I hate that term!) who would fly the American and Union Jack on their blogs but would never ever fly flags from say Egypt or other 'unChristian' countries that suffered terrorism.
ReplyDeleteI would never fly any flag on my blog. It is hypocritical IMO. The people who died in the London bombings as well as 9/11 and the many other bombings (Madrid, Bali etc.) were people of different nationality not just British/American/Spanish/Indonesian etc. Plus I don't believe in gung-ho patrioticism.