Look who's talking

Obviously trying to show off to his friends his concern over the decline of their indigenous language, a man scolds his teenage son.

Man: "You can't even speak your own mother tongue. That's shameful!"

Son : "Why are you scolding me in English?"


We tend to forget that our children are mirrors of ourselves.

The indigenous villager and the businessman

An arrogant businessman wanted to survey a land he had acquired for a palm oil plantation. Since he was not sure of its location, he sought the help of an indigenous villager to take him there. The journey took a few hours on foot through the forest.

"What do you do for a living?" he asked the old villager as they were walking.

"Farming," he replied.

"Do you know about the economy?" asked the businessman.

"No."

"Well, that's too bad for you'll always be poor," he proudly said.

After a few minutes of silence, the arrogant businessman posed another question to the villager.

"Our country is about to hold the general election. Do you know anything about politics?"

"No."

"That's too bad for you'll lose your rights."

Silence. Then another question.

"Do you know anything about technology?"

"No."

"Then you'll always be backward," he said.

Not long afterwards, a poisonous snake bit the businessman's leg. He panicked and screamed.

The villager, who was walking few metres in front, quickly ran to check on him.

"Do you know anything about wild herbs that we could use to treat this," asked the villager.

"Are you stupid! Of course not!" he cried, apparently annoyed with the question.

"Well that's too bad for you'll lose your life."

The egret and the water buffalo

Rice farmers in Sabah used to rely on water buffalos to work in the rice fields. Not anymore now for the younger generations of the rice farming community, the indigenous people, prefer to work within the comfort of air-conditioned offices, to say it generally. So, like their old masters, most buffalos here have long retired. People have need for them only as sacrificial animals especially on weddings and when there is a death in the family. Sometimes they are slaughtered when someone has violated a customary law. Most of the time, however, they end up in Chinese coffee shops as meat balls in a noodle soup called, ngau chap. Their tasty insides included.

In spite of all these, they seem to be contented with life. They move about from one grazing field to another munching the sweet grasses as the days go by to the time when they too will...Oh poor thing. They eat all the time and eating seem to be a meditative experience. The constant presence of egrets who feed on some organisms on their backs (probably ticks) is hardly a distraction.

Why am I saying this? Oh, a story.

An agret was approaching a buffalo to climb on its back to feed. As the buffalo started to move he accidentally stepped on the poor bird's foot. Screaming in pain, the egret managed to deliver a strong kick with his other foot on the buffalo's balls. Of course, the kick from his skinny leg was hardly felt by the huge and tough beast. But it so happened at that very instant the buffalo was standing right under a durian tree and by sheer coincidence one of the spiky fruits, dubbed the king of fruits by Malaysians, fell from ten metres right on top of his head. The buffalo screamed out loud from the pain just as the time the egret's kick landed on his testicles.

"There you are! Taste your own medicine!" cried the bird who thought that it was his kick that hurt the buffalo.

The pre-election fever is already felt in Malaysia including Sabah. As the battle for power to rule is picking momentum the king makers - the voters - are ready to use their democratic right to choose the next government. But does every single vote really count in deciding for change? Or is it just an egret's kick from a skinny leg that is hardly felt by the strong buffalo?

Treat the pain, not the swell

Call it superstitious beliefs or what but in Sabah many people would consult individuals who claim to have supernatural powers of healing when they are sick, especially terminal illnesses. Some go for other reasons like wanting to find out if their spouses are unfaithful. Anyway, someone in the family told me last night about a popular medium who would sometimes reveal a patient's dark secrets for he believes that healing of the physical wellbeing starts with the spirit. Despite his can of worms-opening approach many still go to him out of desperation. He attends to his patients of all walks of life all day long. Yet, many avoid him for obvious reasons. Some even pooh-pooh his ability and accuse him of being a phony. I, however, am not in the position to judge their claims as well as the medium's ability.

But what captures my attention is the kind of reaction people have toward healing. I remember a story:

A young woman golfer sliced the ball into a garden of flowers and as it was her only ball left for she had lost the rest in the previous holes, she was determined to find it.

As she was looking through the flowers, an angry bee stung her lower lip. She continued playing the remaining holes and by the time she returned to the club house she felt a throbbing pain on her swelling lip. Her golf buddies however noted that the swollen lip looked kind of sexy on her, like Julia Roberts' they said.

On her way home, she drove to a clinic, told the doctor what happened and sought treatment.

"By the way doctor," she said inside the treatment room. "Can you just treat the pain and leave the swell as it is?"

The trouble about knowing

Last year, my team and I were in a remote village in Sabah to conduct a writing and photography training for an indigenous community under the United Nations Development Programme's Promotion of Tropical Forest grant. The villagers, mostly poor farmers, were very hospitable to us all throughout our stay. We had our sessions in the day as there was no electricity supply to the village. During the night the old wooden house where we stayed was only lighted by two or three oil lamps, so it was still pretty dim. After the long training sessions we always looked forward to having a nice meal in the evening prepared by the wonderful womenfolk. We had rice, vegetables picked from the forest, fish caught from the river and occassionally wildboar meat from a recent hunt. Something about eating in the dark that simply increased our appetite. And we never mind the stray dogs who always joined in (the house had no doors to keep them out). Except for their smell, we could not see them clearly anyway. We enjoyed dinner time so much that we took our time eating while talking to our hosts for hours mostly about the problems and issues they were facing.

On the third day of our stay, the village headman brought a battery-powered lamp to increase visibility in the house. It was during dinner time. The hall was much brighter no doubt but what we saw instantly spoiled our appetite. The poor dogs had skin disease and one even had what looked like a long piece of thread coming out from its behind. It did not take us long to realise it was a worm! We were still looking forward to dinner time during the rest of our stay but we ate less and as quickly as we could before the dogs would arrive.

Come to ponder about that experience now, I'd say that the light of knowledge can do more harm than good. Well, we know that already, don't we?

But then again, ignorance can be dangerous.

Here's another dog-related story I once read, at least, similar to it.

A group of foreign tourists were on a bus trip to one of the villages in Sabah. The bus broke down on the way and while it was being repaired, the passengers decided to go to a nearby food stall to eat. Although they were not used to the local food served by the shop, they ate anyway as they were starving. Not long afterwards, a skinny dog came. They took pity and threw him some of their food. The dog ate like he had not eaten in weeks.

After the bus was repaired they continued their journey. On they way they saw the same dog lying dead by the roadside. Just before he died the dog vomitted every last meal he just had. Thinking he had died of food poisoning, all the tourists started to get ill. They were rushed to the nearest hospital. The doctor was puzzled as to the cause of their illness after he could not find anything to suggest food poisoning.

The dog was actually hit by a car. He did not die of food poisoning.

Expert advice

A doctor informed a patient that he was suffering from severe depression.

"Is it serious?" asked the frightened patient.

"I'm afraid so," said the doctor.

"Can you treat it?"

"I'm afraid not," he replied. "But do you always get headaches?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Because that I can treat."

The politician

The Supreme Court of Species was in session. A huge crowd comprising all the different living species on the planet turned out to witness the hearing for it was rarely held. Before the session began, the judge asked the prosecutor what the charge was.

"For saying bad things about others so to make him look good, Your Honour," he answered.

The judge then turned to the accused in the dock.

"What species are you!" he asked.

"I'm a human being," replied the accused.

"Occupation?" asked the judge again.

"Politician."

People have stopped thinking

A storyteller once said to a young successful young man.

"The problem wth most people today is that they have stopped thinking."

"I strongly disagree," replied the young man. "I think every minute."

"That's what I mean. You're only reacting to my words, not thinking."

The storyteller

There was a storyteller who lived in a small village. He was shunned by fellow villagers who disliked his stories. They claimed that his stories were nothing more than ridiculous tales, untrue and at times, an insult to their intelligence. But children loved him. Whenever they saw him walking in the village, they swarmed him and asked him to tell them a story or two. There was always something magical in the way he told his stories for they made the children wonder and ponder; ask questions than seek answers; laugh and cry sometimes. They did not care if his stories were true or not. They did not have to believe. They only enjoyed listening to him. And they did not feel insulted for they had no pride nor prejudices to defend. Years passed, they stopped coming to him. That was then when they grew up.

*******

There's this saying:

The mind is a like parachute. It only works when it's open.