Mercun...

A couple of days ago, a 6-year old kid became the 1st casualty this year due to firecrackers. But the thing is, he didn't get killed becoz he was playing with them, he got killed becoz he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. He got killed just becoz he happen to be at an illegal firecracker storing facility, which happened to be owned by.. get this.. his parents.. His parents duly went on hiding as soon as the incident happened... the icing on the cake was that the boys' parents went to the police station that day to bail his uncle, who was arrested due to.. possession of firecrackers... I guess what goes around come around..

During my day as a kid, I never really was into firecrackers. My friends was playing with those meriam buluh, with a contraption devised from spark plugs.. but I didn't really find those things interesting.. which was funny really, considering my interest in everything military. But I did play with firecrackers. I liked those mercun burung (or whatever they called it). It was a small paper tube, about an inch long, it had a very short fuse. The thing was that, it didn't explode or anything like it, rather it flew with a buzzing sound.. on the box was printed drawings of birds, hence the name : mercun burung. It was pretty harmless.. until one day, when one of friends bury a big one (there was another bigger one, about 1 1/2 inch long), into the sand & lit it. Of course it blew the sand up &... into his eyes.. he spent 2 weeks in the hospital & one of his eyes was damaged. Pretty high price to pay.

These days there are those mercun bola & ketupat. The mercun bola especially, was very dangerous. I consider it high-explosive, it was very loud. & it can cause injury if mishandled, just by itself, U didn't even have to modify it into something else.

While I understand tht it's extremely difficult to catch all this firecracker smugglers (they got their supply from Thailand). But what puzzles me is the willingness of people young & old to risk their lives & play with it. Even with all sorts of news about hands, fingers & other body parts getting blown away by that mercun, people keep buying them & gave them to their kids to play. Granted, they want their kids to experience what they felt when playing those things, those at my age wouldn't know.. we didn't have those mercun bola back then.

There are other better things that you can do with your money & your lives, life is short. Use it wisely.

History Channel

Beginning from middle of August until 16th September, the History Channel on Astro will be showing documentaries about our nation. From the Malayan Emergency to the Al-Maunah arms heist, building of KLCC, the SMART Tunnel & also most recently, the inauguration of Yang diPertuan Besar Negeri Sembilan, it provided Malaysians a chance to learn about things we wouldn't have been able to learn in schools. I've always loved history. To me, we have to know our history. Some ppl said that to embrace history is like taking a step back & we would never progress if we are tied up by history. But I think that in order to move forward, we have to look back. & I've always think that the smartest ppl are those who learn from their mistakes & never repeat them. How are we gonna learn from mistakes if we don't know our history ?

The inauguration of the Yang diPertuan Besar Negeri Sembilan was especially interesting, simply becoz that the Negeri Sembilan monarchs, & also their people, are very high in tradition. Hence the inauguration ceremony was very unique & rich in tradition. The ruler of N. Sembilan was the only monarch in Malaysia in which the ruler was selected via democracy of some sort. 4 of the highest ranked rulers of 4 of the biggest districts in N.Sembilan will convene to select the ruler. In short, I think it was the oldest practice of democracy in Malaysia, if not the world.

The Al-Maunah arms heist was a dark chapter in the nation's history. It created many firsts.. the first conviction due to waging war against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, or in simpler terms : Treason. Those who thought that the government staged the heist oughta think again...

Livestrong.