LOINCLOTH MENTALITY?

A comment from Hadi Awang, a PAS supremo, who was quoted as saying that voters in Batang Ai wore loincloth or "Cawat" in Bahasa Malaysia, that's why they voted for the ruling coalition the BN. The voters, most of whom were the Dayak Iban tribe, used to have their ancestors wearing loinscloth.

The comment no doubt drew angry responses from the BN leaders, especially Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) and from other Dayak-based parties such as the SPDP. They were so offended by the comment which is taken literally and demanded public apologies from the Opposition leader. The demands were in the mainstream newspapers for the past four days.

Hadi was interviewed by a national news agency about this disparaging comment, but did not retract his comments, instead he said he did not intend offend the culture of the Dayak Iban in that constituency. He was "referring to the BN leaders who had fooled the people in Batang Ai".

To many people of Sarawak that I have talked to some took offense and some did not, depending on one's political leaning. But for me, such degrading comment is not new to me, I have had several racial and degrading comment on what and who we were. I chose and still choose to take such comments as an impetus to do well. I took these degrading comments positively and when later they'd learned that I was better on many counts then them, eventually they gave very high respect to me and they would normally offer apolgies. Not because I demanded any apology.

The way I see it, this 'degrading' comment is meant to wake us up and do something RIGHT. People will respect us eventually. There's no point in demanding any apologies. The way I see it, we should do something right first.

That 'something right' may be subjective, but I my experiences had taught me, anything that is right will show eventually. .. with great impact too!


The Mighty Hornbill....

EXTREME HEAT

The past weeks have been the hottest weeks that I've ever experienced in Sarawak, especially Sibu town.
I could not determine exactly what the reading has been on the thermometer, but was sure that it had been extremely hot that my head went spinning and at times I felt like vomiting, even in the shade of the office and coolness of the air-conditioners. I mean, I've never felt so drained out, burnt to the core due to the etreme heat.

Can this be the result of global warming millions of people are talking about? Are we now paying for the horrible mistakes our forefathers had committed in destroying the world due to industrial revolution, million of cubic meters of industrial smokes release in the air for 27/7 around the world, trees being cut down in unbridled manner....?

While some weather 'expert' was quoted as saying that it's because of the El-Nino phenomenon which is now bringing havoc with it, but what remains to be asked is that "How did the El-Nino weather phenomenon come about? Isn't it because of the result of man's abusive work over the land he works on?"

The weather change - changing into bad bad weather - has killed thousand of people over the years for the past ten years. I wonder what will it be like in a hundred years from now? All of us living now may not be around that time, but what will certainly remain is the weather, but one that will perhaps be worse that what we see now.

I can't even imagine how serious it will be like then, if NO ONE has ever done anything about it.
What can we do, anyway? There's alot we dan do, but alot of determination required, too.

THE MIGHTY HORNBILL...

FACELIFT

As you might notice there's a face lift to this blog. This reflects boldness and willingness to accept new ideas that might be beneficial to mankind.

I will continue to touch on issues that impact us positively and negatively, then offer my thoughts on them and hopefully some improvements to improve our lives as a result.

That will include political matters, cultures, medicines, better life's practices and so forth.

Again, am open for your suggestions and constructive ideas.

Happy blogging...

The Mighty Hornbill....

H1N1 FLU SUBSIDING?

In today's newspapers, the dreaded H1N1 flu or swine flu infected persons had been discharged from all the hospitals in Sarawak. That appears to be a good piece of news for all of us.

According to the report, the minister concerned, Dr. George Chan said there were 33 cases, including the latest ones, were discharged on Tuesday.

Is the dreaded virus subsidising? Chan said the State Health Department was now working on stopping the "mitigation" of the flu. Meaning to say that the focus is to prevent the spread of the virus internally. Out of the 'imported' ones, there were as of Tuesday 12 cases involving locally transmitted patients. And that's the main objective of the department - to stop the spread or transmission of the flu.

The report also said that the those known to contract the flu after that will be asked to have "self isolation" at their respective homes and not to be admitted in the hospital, thus lessening their exposure to other people. Only those very sick and and weak would be admitted.

Whatever the moves are, let's hope that it's the beginning of disease dying out, while everyone of us are asked to continue practising self hygiene, by always washing our hands with soaps.

THE MIGHTY HORNBILL...

IDENTITY CRISIS

As we've discussed in the preceding blog, the Orang Ulu, which conists many minority races, include among others the Kayan, Kenyah, Kelabit, Berawan, Lun Bawang, Penan, Punan and more. These groups of people are lumped under the Orang Ulu communities.

Again, as mentioned previously this name was NOT from these groups of people, but given by ''other" races to them to identify all the people due to the lack of name, or perhaps identity.

But until now these people seem to suffer this identity crisis. There's no specific physical attributes that truly differentiate them from the Chinese, for example, besides their Bahasa Malaysia capability. Others would mistake them for a Chinese, as they easily pass for one.

The name Orang Ulu, according to many people gives the perception of a primitive and backward connotation. Sometimes derogatory! This becomes a problem.

So, change of name is necessary to change that perception.

We'll continue in the next blog...

THE MIGHTY HORNBILL...

IDENTITY

For most people belonging to a certain race, identity is not an issue. For it is because they are already known to belong to a certain group and their identity is not a problem. In case of Sarawak for example, an Iban when identified as such is not a problem at all, because he or she is known as an Iban.

But for the "Orang Ulu" communities, it's a totally different issue. The term Orang Ulu describes all the many ethnic groups lumped under this category, who live or come from the upper reaches of rivers in Sarawak. The term came about from 'outsiders' who did not know what race these people were when they came down rivers to buy supplies. In other words, due to a lack of name (identity) thus the Orang Ulu term came to stick to these people.

Reported history tell us this appeared to be the case, especially when leaders from these races identified themselves a "representatives of the Orang Ulu" during the Rajah Brooke reign.

The term had in fact been made official perhaps in one of the Sarawak Gazettes and thus making the term stuck to identify these minority groups.

Over the years though, lots of people from these communities have become successful in business, private employment and government sectors. Still, this does not help catapult the identity of these peoples.

Lately however, there's been effort to correct this, but at the time of writing this, the issue has not yet seen any decision yet. But, at the same time, many see the NEED to change this term into one that is able to represent the true identity of these groups of ethnic people.

We'll continue with this issue in "blogs" to come, for now this should give a brief background on why identity is paramount to these communities.

THE ABOVE PICTURE SHOWS WHAT AN "ORANG ULU" TRADITIONAL COSTUME LOOKS LIKE.

THE MIGHTY HORNBILL...

TRADITIONAL COSTUMES

In Sarawak, which has some 27 ethnic groups, its people take pride in showcasing their traditional costumes.

The Iban tribe, Orang Ulu community as well as other ethnic tribes would normally go at great length to dress their best and show them to visitors.

They would do this during festive seasons or some special days or even during official functions. Just recently this was the case of several maidens and beautiful women who showed their traditional costumes to the visitors.

There were the Iban costumes and the Upper River people's costumes, which made the night one could remember for a long time.

We, too would like to see how others would look like and appreciate them. This would make mutual respect and acceptance of one another, thus peace and stability prevail. At least this is the scenario in all Sarawak state.

THE MIGHTY HORNBILL...