Knotty Desiderata is a mousey writer, so this wickedend he's going to the flea market to try re-sell this seven-story tail.WHY 7 you ask? Well, if nobody asked, I wouldn't tell, but since my mind did, here/hear's the reply/rebutt!:(
If Sdr Anwar can have his 916, and Zaid his 1216, why knot Desi his se7en???
Friday, August 12, 2005
GEMS and COALS
Narrative 5
Yeh, finally, here’s MyStory, definitely embellished and dis-membered, with apologies to the original storyteller! I heard it on the cigarette maker Camel’s grapevibes.
The Bedouin master in the wintry night out in the Zahara desert took pity on his Camel. He took the animal’s two feet into the cover of the small tent, as the cold outside was becoming more bitter.
After some time, the Bedouin felt the cold biting into him, and being a kind soul, pulled in the Camel’s body so that one half was able to enjoy some warmth of the inside of the tent.
After more time had passed, the master felt his body chilled, so he pulled the Camel further in, with only the Camel’s neck and head now jutting out of the tent.
The cold blasts of winter wind and hailstorm became furiouser and curiouser. And being a warm-heArted soul, the Bedouin felt it was cruelty to animals to have his Camel freeze outside. So he pulled with all his might the last exposed anatomy of his Camel into the tent.
He then qietly went back to sleep.
Then suddenly there was a big and loud THUD from the tiny tent, inside!
The Camel had kicked its hind-leg so hard that the Master was sent flying out of the tent, and into the open arms of the Zahara desert, outside!
Narative 1
From Mr Coww in his Chinese Classic wisdom.
Forewarning: in these days of haze,if Desi’s re-tell suffers from embellishment or deception, blame it on Indunesia, or on the Ministry of Environs.
THE FINGER
A poor farmer was paying due respect to his God one early morn, praying dutifully at the family shrine. An angel appeared before him, saluting his filial duties and hard work on the farm serving the community with his humble produce.
“Today I bring thee good fortune, the Angel said. Look at that boulder, I’ll point my index finger at it, and it will trun to gold and it’s all yours.” The Angel then pointed his finger at the boulder, and hey presto, it became a rock of gold, glittering in the sun’s rays.
The Farmer was amazed, yet his face continued to show disappointment.
“Why my Friend, do you not celebrate? This gold rock is yours, all yours. You are rich now, Go and enjoy thy life – but for your wife gems and perfumes, and for the children, food and drinks,” the Angel advised.
The Farmer looked crestfallen.
Maybe he wanted more, so the Angel pointed his finger at a stone next to the boulder. The stone was immediately transformed into gold.
Yet the Farmer’s face did not light up. So the Angel asked: “Ok, what would make you happy – I’ll try to grant thee thy wish.”
The Farmer looked the Angel in the hand, and pointed to the index finger, imploring: “I want this finger.”;)
PS: A fairy also appeared before me when I was SEVEN, and said he would grant me any wish I wanted. I must have shouted excitedly at the vision -- or isit epiphany? -- to a seven-month old baby: “Mummy, Mummy! – and the fairy obliged with an endless supply of that brand of instant noodles. Hence, my nickname until I was SEVENteen was Mamee-Boy!
I've now grown up, would kill anyone who'd still w'isper Mamee-Boy 'cos I've progressed to seeing Ursula Undress in all her morning glory coming out of the sea, running away from DR NO, and dashing towards Gold Finger.
Narative 2
from theSUN, August 11, 2005, page 10
SPAM king pays RM26m to settle suit
SAN FRANCISCO: A man once known as the king of spam has agreed to pay Microsoft USD7million (RM25.9million) to settle the software giant’s lawsuit, the company said on Tuesday.
Scott Richter, whose company OptInRealBig.com Llc. bombarded millions of Internet users with unwanted emails, was sued by Microsoft and New York Attorney-General Elliot Spitzer last year.
Under the terms of the settlement, Richter agreed to halt bankruptcy proceedings that would have protected his assets from litigation. – dpa
PS: I’ve been spammed tsunami-style too. Can Malaysians take a class-action suit against anybody?If any coolcat here wishes to proceed with one, make me a partner, OK? I offer myself as a WEAKness, I have all the evidence logged up in mySOFTbank©.
Narrative 3
from theSun, page 4 of its Business Section
Yahoo to buy a 3rd of Alibaba
CHINESE e-commerce operator Alibaba.com is in the last stages of talks to sell a 35 percent stake to Yahoo Inc in return for USD1billion (RM3.75billion) and Yahoo’s entire China’s operations, a source close to the discussions said yesterday.
The combination would create an e-commerce giant by bringing together Alibaba’s business-to-business and consumer online auction sites with Yahoo’s search operations, China’s second largest after leader Baidu.com.
A deal would mark an end to Yahoo operating a venture in China on its own. Swapping its country operations in exchange for a structure more similar to Yahoo Japan Corp, in which the US giant holds a 33percent stake while Japan’s Softbank holds a controlling 42percent. Softbank is also an investor in Alibaba, and is said to have been a broker in the current China talks. – Reuters
PS: I picked up this item feeling mighty ‘proud’ that a Malaysian-originating company has made it BIG in China. No, Desi’s mistaken, only Malaysia-sounding-lah. Now I realise my country has been made to look like Mickey. How dare these people steal this Alibaba trademark rightfully from Malaysia?:(
Narrative 4
From theSUN, yes, again, page 9
Colourful graft buster charged – with graft
BEIJING: A Chinese official who said he had to wear a bullretproof vest for six years and hire bodyguards after receiving death threats during his fight against corruption has been charged with … corruption. Huang Jingao, who in a letter to the Communist Party’s newspaper a year ago styled himself as a graft-busting pit-bull terrier, has been accused of taking bribes of nearly USD1million in cash, gems, jewellery, a gold brick and a laptop computer, Xinhau news agency reported.The one-time party chief of Lianjiang county in Fujian province also kept four mistresses and was fond of prostitues, media said. - Reuters
PS: This story is qite familiar to Malaysian rakyat, admit it-lah! PAGAR MAKAN PADI, remember, or we choose what we want to remember. That's ESCAPISM!< I of10 told Mr Coww, No, it was Mr Coww telling Desi, 4 so haz4 today.
When we discuss philosophy, Mr Coww also of10 observes that Man Proposes, God Disposes. Desi, in his great vicedom, sometimes crackfully adds: and ... Woman Exposes(c):((And brudder Mack, I assure you, this is NOT impolite, maybe verse, or fun, or pun, but definitely not profane language – it’s a play of words, remember? ;)
DESIDERATA: My take in all the above narratives is that humans all over the world are born with common frailties. Basically we are the same, except for the external skin colour of black and white, brown and yellow, and all the shades in between. CHIAROSCURO, remember, I dunno why I’ve become besotted with this WORD, since I looked up the meaning in the dictionary (I’m sorry I used the short of “’ick’ in Mack’s weblog, See http://brandmalaysia.com;) nd it created some MIS-understanding to which I apologized, so I shall refrain …), Indeed, Malaysians and Londoners, Iraqis, Americans, and Japanese, and Chinese all are human. We were all born IMPERFECT, although it’s religiously preached that all humans are born in the image of God. Luckily, some human beings are amendable to change under the right teaching and influence; some are incorrigible, like that camel, or that graftbuster, or mayhaps my own wont to make fun of others, and pun of Coww, once-in-a-blue-moon on myself. And of course, as mGf know very well, Desi is AlWays guilty of claiming a defence in -- IGNORANCE is BLISS!;) to Mr Coww, whom I always pun with, and ALL mGf in the plural, who I AlWays have FUN, PUN and WON with! ENJOY!
posted by desiderata at 3:52 AM
POSTSCRIPT added on Nov 21, 2010:
My Camel story is a follow-up to Yesterday's ramble/rumble/tumble. I guess another piece of writing I sighted in blogosphere last week resembled the Bedouin mater and his Camel, except it happened in Malaysia Bolehland, knot in the Sahara desert! Here's re-copy with no copyright or left royalty paid, YL, Desi:)
From ongohing.wordpress.com ~~ ENJOY!
THE GUEST WHO SETS YOUR HOUSE ON FIRE
He was welcomed into the house in the hope that like most others who crossed the treshold of your home he would be part of the family. You treated him not as a guest but a family member. He had family rights. You gave him big roles to play within the family. Not token or cosmetic but high-level positions, important work that was key to your family’s business. He was entrusted such big roles that even those who became family members much much earlier than him were not priviledged to have until today.
But it was never enough for him.
His attention was not on those tasks assigned to him. Even important family meetings he often felt wasn’t worth his attention nor attendance. He had the opportunities to make progress in the family life and gain admiration and gratitude if only he were willing and able to perform his duties. Even his criticism would have found hearing ears at home if only he had earned respect to be listened to by fufliing his domestic assignments. (You are asked to wash the plates not leave it in the kitchen sink or worse still, break it.)
As it turned out, after just a year in the family home, he wanted to be second only to the patriarch and matriarch of the family. Which was fine too by the family rules except for the way he went about it.
By his own admission, he loved calling “a spade, a spade”. That was as long as he was the one doing the calling. But when others started calling a spade, a spade in regard to him, he cried foul and took great exception to the fact that the spade which was his favourite tool of choice when found in another person’s hand and turned against him became what he called ‘sabotage’, and ‘lies’.
I need to check, before I next pick up my garden tool, but could it be that he was the fellow who did the world the favour by inventing the spade? Only he had the right to use a spade?
So it was that from his behaviour, it was alright for him to say anything about anyone but no one must say anything about him. He termed himself as the “messenger of truth” and those who disagreed with him were therefore to his mind snipers who were out to shoot the messenger of truth.
Even that was fine and within his rights.
But even this much wasn’t enough. Before he started to go about the process of becoming second only to the patriarch and matriarch of the family, he was saying that he would make a good match to them. Then, when it appeared that he might not after all be favoured by them, he (and I hesitate to say this in front of the children and young in the family and I am counting till ten…) said it was high time the patriarch should leave the house! Yes you heard me right, the patriarch was the problem for the ills of the family and unless he went, the family would never prosper.
It was alright to find a corner of the house to sulk in. But it seemed that even that wasn’t enough for this guest (since he would not conduct himself as a family member). He is now going about burning the house down. It looks and sounds like: “If I can’t get what I want, then others can’t have it either” or “A house without me isn’t worth keeping”.
In any family, there will be disagreements, complaints and any family will do well to do some spring cleaning from time to time. Not sweep everything under the carpet, mind you, but spring cleaning.
But it is not alright to burn the house down!
What is the moral of this story? When you next open the doors of your house to the next person who comes a-knocking, be sure to have the call number of the nearest fire brigade handy.
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