Beware! Vandalism has come to our Kampung!

.. Jalan Babagon Indah roadside decorative trees ..

Overnight one night in late October, a few manageable Government road signs were uprooted and thrown down. The heavy and unmanageable ones were spared. Some a dozen or so young, about one to one and a half centimeter width trunks, Government-planted decorative trees along a road were seemingly man-handled and snapped-off from about a foot high from the ground.

.. the replanted road signs .. .. the snapped off young trees ..

The uprooting of the road signs, for sure, was not reported to the Police for further professional police investigations. It was hoped that the ravaging of the young decorative trees was duly reported as it involved damages to Government properties and needing a Government employee, the officer-in-charge, to execute the official reporting duties. The making of Police reports of damages resulting from vandalism is generally hoped made and is thought of very necessary for it is in fact the first step to ethical awareness raising and to the education of the public as a whole. Responsible institutions set up within a kampung could organize Talks and Discussions at kampung level where speakers from outside, e.g. the Police Department, could be invited to present Talks on "How to make Police Reports" or "What could be reported to the Police", among others. This is necessary so that a typical folly, such as, "I can't make a Police report for I don't know who the culprit is!", could not surface from a hoped budding community icon.

ETK@93yrs

Big sister presented father a birthday cake.

Why should she help father blow the candles?

Geni, the hidden wonder maker of some sort, unwittingly reminded me that the old man was turning 93 in a couple of days time. Consciously rather than otherwise, I mentioned my computer find to big sister DSP. We exchanged a few SMSes and finalized that the-what-should-be, should be on. On Thursday a short SMS was composed and sent to eight household heads, his children who reside further away from Kampung Babagon. Sister Colette was the first positive respondent. Apart from Big Sister herself, there were two others who positively responded much later. The rest of the invitees did not bother to acknowledge the simple SMS because, as confided, they could not for they didn't know how! Friday evening was simply a perfect evening for any indoors or outdoors activities. Everyone was in before 8.00 p.m.. Everyone wished their father "Happy Birthday"

Deliver Us From All Evil

The beautiful location of a kampong must have been influenced by the early inhabitants who corporately decided to live in that particular location. There must have been some consensus gathering from amongst the group as to their choice of the location of their kampung. The actual democratic act of suggesting and agreeing must have been put into use. They, no doubt, then built their dwelling houses there for they were one of people’s basic needs. They must have made use of the abundant round timbers available, while they enlarged the clearings for the kampong. For all their kampong activities the gotong royong teamwork spirit must have been employed. The sense of landscaping to beautify their kampung was inert even amongst the early men. In thus enlarging the clearings for their kampong, they must have left some beautiful big trees standing as landmarks. The social development of mankind must have then evolved naturally.

Many people nowadays have slowly departed from their inborn ideal values despite of the expressed rather than implied good teachings of religions. Given the chance to make decisions they tend to forget to put into use even the inner goodness of their hearts. Kampung-politics, as how they think they can crudely interpret them, are employed to govern the processes of their actions. Here is a near-hypothetical scenario whereby a decision had to be made, and made now, by supposedly enlightened nowadays men.

‘A’ is a relatively young man. He is not very rich but he has started a young family. His family is happy. He is a government employee, going to work in the morning and coming back in the evening. He has a small car. He has a place to stay. The wife is a relative to many living around them.

‘B’ is a relatively old woman, a widow. She stays in her hut-like dwelling house. She tries to maintain a shifting subsistence crop farm as a way of life. The bamboo floor of her dwelling hut had been recently organise-repaired by the kampong youths. She seemed mentally challenged, otherwise a very peaceful person. She is a relative to some living around her. Her house is right beside the main road and in view of all passers-by. Whatever is done to landscape and beautify the visitors-frequented places nearby, such effort will always be nullified by the presence of that symbolic dilapidating dwelling hut, ‘B’’s dwelling house.

B's house

The decision to be made now is, “If there were free houses to be built by an institution for the deserving members of the population, who should be the first to get it? Is it ‘A’ or ‘B’? The decision should portray a big holistic picture depicting the donor institution as caring and people oriented.

Coming back to reality! There seemed to be a very strong indication, contrary to my personal view, that ‘A’ was selected to get a house, not ‘B’. When I asked as to why that was so, then a vague and non-committal reaction I received was that ‘A’ voted for a victorious Pengerusi in an election.

Where could this excerpt be found … “..the person who does not do the good he knows he should do is guilty of sin”?

Singkolomutaitaitingaudikoput!

About 55 years ago, as I remember the many instances that happened during my early primary school level school life, I had many friends. I was the tag-along friend, not the initiator, not the leader in a group. Some of my friends were smartly dressed. One particular school friend was a reputed anak towkay from Putatan. He came to school with many new things, e.g. toys, to show to others. One morning he came to school with something in his pocket... In those days, schooling was not literally learning but more on character building. The day started with a short Manual Labour on the Timetable. It was sometimes the very act of cleaning the immediate surroundings of the school, e.g. picking of rubbish on the ground, collecting them and throwing them in the proper place. This friend of ours had that something in his shorts pocket. When he bended down to pick a piece of paper or anything that could be termed as rubbish, a cat sound came out from his shorts pocket as he stretched his back upright. So those curious friends, myself included, went along with him where ever he went...just to constantly listen to the "meow" sound he could produce. This anak towkay was a Chinese. When we pressed on him to tell us what it was, he somehow told us in so, so many words, maybe some of the words were partly in Chinese, that the thing was Singkolomutaitaitingaudikoput.

What is there in a name?

My given names, according to my Roman Catholic Church Baptismal Certificate stated Joannes Julius. Where was the name Joannes from? No one could enlighten me as to who suggested the name for me! Could Emol’s other name be Joannes? He was my uncle, my mother’s youngest brother. Emol died in his teens due to nohusian. (mysterious reasons). The name, Joannes, was incidentally taken by the late Emol’s nephew, Vivian. I did not mind I had that name, except that I did not use it. It was therefore not framed in my NRIC, the official tag-card for all Malaysian citizens. The names I sported on my NRIC was Joseph Julius Kinajil, Kinajil being my grandfather’s name. I also used a supplimentary NRIC which stated my alias names as Joseph Tangit. My alias is also stated in my high quality MyCard if its chip-piece was machine-read. My everyday name is Joe Tangit, otherwise, Joseph Tangit. Formally, my full name is Joe Tangit Kinajil or Joseph Tangit Kinajil. On all formal ducuments my name is Joseph Julius Kinajil @ Joseph Tangit. Sometimes, my name is reversed mistakenly as Joseph Tangit @ Joseph Julius Kinajil. Such a case was for my application for a personal Post Office Box No. 70, in Penampang. My gazetted name for my BSK Award from the State Government was simply Joseph Tangit which is my commonly used name as a Government Officer when I was still in service. My names as appended on all four University Certificates from England are the mixtures of Joseph Julius Tangit Kinajil. The Colombo Plan Scholarship Training Certificate from Australia is appended simply with the name Joseph Tangit. There was a time when I was seriously asked to abandon the use of the surname, Tangit, and to assume the surname, Kinajil, in its stead. I was given the impression that I may have to take a Deed Poll to effect changes. I had my guesses as to the reasons why I was asked to do so. I really kept quite about the order coming from an elder. If my guesses of the reasons were true, then I did not like them. Not at all! I was therefore thick-headed and continued to use, Tangit, as my surname, the surname I have given for my children and consequently then assumed by my grandsons, my sons’ offsprings. I am prepared to start a new family tree steming from Tangit as the source. If there are any of my 2 sons and 2 daughters who would prefer the use of Kinajil as their everyday surname, to concur with the rest of the upper and lower lines, then I would not put down my feet to bar them. They are free to manipulate the use of names familiar to them as long as they realise as to the theory, “what is there in a name!”