On Tagged

Well, apparently, i've been tagged.
And apparently i cant refuse to do it.
So apparently, i've got to answer a bunch of invasive questions.

Here are the rules:

A． People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blogs and replace any question they dislike with a new question formulated by themselves Tag 8 people. Those who are tagged cannot refuse.
B． These 8 people must state who they were tagged by. Ashy tagged me. You cannot tag the person who tagged you. Continue this game by sending this to 8 other people.






1. If your lover betrayed you, what will your reaction be?
Well. As long as the person tells me about it, i wouldnt actually consider it a betrayal. But by 'betraying' me, she would have made the relationship non-exclusive, which is fine.

2. What will you do if you do not share the same feelings as the person who likes you?
Honesty is the best policy.

3. What will your dream wedding be like?
A small one, in a church maybe, with no hassle, followed by an immediate honeymoon.

4. Are you confused as to what lies ahead of you?
Looking forward to it.

5. What’s your ideal lover like?
I've got no ideal.

6. Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone else?
Loving someone is my personal preferrence. Haha, I bet you wouldnt have guessed that!

7. If the person you like does not accept you, would you continue to wait for them to change their feelings?
Well, i'd hang around, not completely cut them off, but i'd see other people too.

8. If the person you secretly like is already attached, what would you do?
Keep my mouth shut.

9. Is there anything that has made you unhappy recently?
Yeap. But what, who knows.

10. What do you want most in life?
Independance.

11. Is being tagged fun?
Haha, its keeping me from looking at stupid slides of the histology of the gastro-intestinal system, so hell yeah. =D


12. If you find out that your best friend is going out with your boyfriend/girlfriend, how would you react?
Nothing. If they want to, let them.

13. Who is currently the most important person to you?
Wayne Rooney.

14. What kind of person do you think I am?
Ashy: The kind of person i really should hang out with more.

15. What is the most unforgettable thing/event in your life?
I cant remember. =D

16. If the person you secretly like cannot recognise you, what would you do/how would you react?
Make her recognise me. =D

17. Would you give your all in a relationship?
Thats the point. And thats why i dont get involved.

18. If you fall in love with two persons simultaneously, who would you pick?
The third person i like. =D

19. What type of friends do you like?
Anyone and everyone. Just dont be dramatic.

20. If you played a prank on someone, and he/she fell for the trick, what would you do?
Post it on youtube! =D



And thats the end!
Anyway, seeing as i've got no friends, i'm not gonna tag anyone else. But if anyone wants to copy this, feel free.

And while i've done my best to be vague, i've still answered every question, so enjoy!

On Rights

Med School STILL rocks.

=D

Guess where i am, at 7 o'clock on a wednesday morning! I'm in histopathology lab! Thats right, a lab with a big medical word next to it! Its awesome, i tell you. Just awesome.
So anyway, today is my clinical visit, so i'm dressed very nicely in my black slacks, pink shirt, and pink tie. Talk about suicidal. I've got a feeling that i'm gonna be teased a bit today.
But i've got my labcoat too, and i tell you, nothing feels better than wearing a lab coat. Today, i can REALLY pretend to be a doctor.

=D

So anyway, have you opened up the news paper recently? Gone passed the comics and sports (yes, i know, its hard to think about anything right now other than Manchester United 3, Liverpool 0, but do try!) and taken a peek at the dramas showing on the world stage? Well, if you have, then you'll know that the paper reads like a tragedy, worthy of shakespeare himself!

Seriously, look at it. The entire world is coming apart at the seams. Terrorism, religious injustices, US elections, all sorts of terrible, dangerous things are going on. Country shapes up against country, government against government, radical islamists against... well, against just about everyone.

One particular article especially gauled me. Some indonesia ulama (or was it a dude invovled in the Bali bombing? cant quite recall) called the bali bombers heroes. And encouraged more young muslims to aspire to matyrdom. Aspire to killing yourself. Bastard.

All in all, malaysian newspapers these days arent fun reading (unless you enjoy blatantly biased political news). Something is wrong somewhere, because people just arent getting along, and nothing is getting better.

So i started pondering over it. I figured since one day i'm gonna rule the world, it was a good idea to figure out all its problems. SO i pondered.

I realised one interesting thing most people overlook. Take an example, 'crimes' agaisnt islam, for instance. Those dutch cartoons (thank you for standing up for free speech, and publishing them again!). It was met with INTENSE protestation, people took to the streets with weapons and words, death threats ran rampant. There was no small amount of outrage from certain areas, and demands for apologies and punishments. Mostly punishments.

But why all the ruckus? I'll tell you why. Its because people love their religion. Its only normal. But some love it so much, they have the notion that no one can offend it, that its their RIGHT to see their religion protected from what they see as attacks.

Now this took back to my childhood days (oh, so long ago!). When i was in kelantan, i didnt have much of a social life (its kelantan, people. If you havent lived there, you dont know), so i turned to the only other place i had: Cyberspace. I had quite the rollicking internet life, amidst all the porn and games (no blogs back then, sadly). So naturally i spent a perfectly reasonable amount of time online (about 25 hours a day).

My father, however, decided to come between me and my newfound life. I used to have to beg him to let me stay on for extended periods of time (when i say extended, i mean EXTENDED!!!!!), and he only gave me about two hours, tops.

I was outraged. Who was he to come between me and my close friends whom i actually knew absolutely nothing about? It was sacrilege! I expressed my righteous anger at his interfering ways, and ended up with no internet time at all.
Good times!
=D

But anyway, before he sent me to my room to rot, he used to tell me 'Isuru, dont think it's your right to use the internet. You dont have any rights in this world, only privileges other people give you. And with these privileges come responsibility.'

Back then, naturally,i thought, 'what the hell are you talking about, man! I WANNA USE THE INTERNET!!!!'. And i didnt really pay attention to what he said.

But now in hindsight, thinking about the world problems, i realised that what he said applied not only to me, but to nearly every conflict everywhere. I didnt have the right to use the internet, so accordingly, i had no right to be angry about my limited use. But in his kindness, my pops gave me the privilege of internet use, something i ought to have been grateful for. But with that privilege came reponsibilities, not to abuse the net or get addicted to it.

Apply that to the sadly common world situation i used as an example. The outraged people really have to right to be angry, because its not their right that everything published or done in the world should conform to their expectations and beliefs. But the publishers of the cartoons should know better, and give those people a privilege, by not publishing the cartoons. Its an act of kindness, and respect. But with that privilege, the people also have a responsibility NOT to act in extreme ways, and in turn respect the freedom of other people.

If things worked that way, the world would be a very very different place.

There's one more good reason to remember that everything you have in the world isnt your right, but infact you privilege. When you have the 'right' to something, and its taken away, you often act in anger, anger which is made all the more dangerous by the fact that you believe it to be righteous. But if you remember that everything is infact a privilege, you'd appreciate what you have more, and keep in line with the responsibilites fallen to you so as to keep whatever privileges you have.

I really hope you understood what i said, because i've got a feeling that if we want to change things so that the situations around the world all start improving, we're all gonna have to adopt this kind of attitude. Its highly unlikely, but hey, i can dream.
=D

In conclusion, i'd like to point out one very very important fact. My dad's a man of great wisdom. This post belongs to him.



Dont tell him i said that. =D

On Morality

Med school rocks.

=D

So anyway, the other day, i was playing table tennis with a bunch of friends, chatting about various random things. The topic of homosexuality came up, and after i finished making my usual joke (an obvious 'subtle' moment towards the closest male), i stated that while i am straight (very, very straight), i had no feelings of animosity for anyone who tilted in the opposite direction.

Surprisingly, my neutral stand was not shared by quite a few of my friends. A couple of them were very anti homosexuality, in fact, so much so as to make declarations such as, i quote "if my son turns out to be gay, i'd just shoot him. If he's a boy, he has to be a boy".

Extreme, i thought. But the people who had this view werent stupid or close minded or anything. They were all intelligent, liberal, thinking folk (you have to be to get into this university), people who wouldnt make sweeping statements in ignorance or mis-guided belief. Their actual opinion was that homosexuality was morally wrong.

Fair enough, everyone is entitled to their own opinions. But this set of a chain reaction of thoughts in my head, and they all revolved around this question: "What is moral?"

Everyone has a different answer for this question. What you think is perfectly correct from a moral sense, i might find completely and absolutely abhorrent. So who is correct?

This brings up the next question. Is there any such thing as universal morality? A set, solid bunch of rules, saying exactly what sort of activity is immoral for everyone?

Some people would say there is, and for arguements sake, i'll continue now as if there is a universal code of morality. What would be in this code?

Do not kill? Is it ALWAYS wrong to take a life? Most of the time, perhaps. But i'm sure there are occasions when killing is alright. Self defence, for instance. Or if the person is a danger to people around him or her. Killing is also used as a punishment for crimes. It seems like killing isnt ALWAYS wrong. In fact, in some circumstances, it seems morally wrong NOT to kill a person (dangerous folk, for instance). So that rule isnt universal.

Do not steal? This one was an interesting one to think about. What is the definiton of stealing? Taking something that belongs to someone else? What if YOU deserved the thing that person had? Or what if the act of not stealing will have serious adverse consequences? Is it alright to steal then? I think it is. So the moral rule on stealing isnt very universal either.

What about lying? Most people would agree that it is morally wrong to lie. But how many people actually completely refrain from lying? The first person who claims to have never lied is lying then and there. Lying has plenty of good uses, it can prevent akward situations or hurt feelings. SO lying isnt necessarily bad, meaning this rule cannot be considered universal either.


I can go on forever and ever. Any and every moral law, rule, or sensibility can be poked through. There will always be situations where things that are normally considered morally wrong are in fact acceptable, sometimes even required.

What about homosexuality? Is that morally wrong? Its been found in many animal species, and has been around as long as heterosexuality has been. How can something so natural be morally wrong?

It so happened the chaps who were anti homosexuality were muslim. That was another thing to look at. Religion has a serious effect on your individual moral standing. In fact, most of the time, your opinions are shaped by whatever religion (or the absence of one) you were brought up in. People claim secular laws and human rights are universal, but even secular laws are based on what religion says. No matter how much we try, it is impossible to seperate religion from law of the state, and consequently the law of the individual, which is that person's morality.

And if people base their morality on religion, because of the huge number and diversity in the religions of the world today, an equally large difference in the moral opinions of the people will be present.


So i think i can pretty much rule out the existance of a universal moral code.

The other alternative is that there is no universal moral code. As long as you feel, honestly deep down in your heart, that what you're doing is correct, you are on the morally right path.

But this opens up an immense pandora's box of conflict and anarchy. This means that no one has the right to tell another person 'hey, stop. What you're doing is wrong', because it isnt wrong. But this would mean no order, no control, people doing exactly what they like when they like, and society as we know it would pretty much implode.

So the existance of a universal moral code is doubtful, but the non existance of it is a potential disaster. A fine mess we find ourselves in!

I christen this the Morality Crisis.

Now what?

This is where religion comes in as so useful. It proclaims a universal code of morality, thus giving people a strict guideline to conform to. It keeps everyone under control, which is a good thing from the society's point of view. Whether religion is correct or not is besides the point; all that matters is that people believe it (a bit blindly) and follow it.

In this way religion is a pretty imperfect solution to the morality crisis. It works by supressing free thought and individualism, and encouraging blind faith in things that can never be proven. It does work, true, but its more a case of the lesser of the two evils.

It does give hope for the future though. Maybe one day people wont need religion to tell them what to do. I can almost imagine a society where everyone thinks before acting, where all the individual members work towards the collective betterment of the society, for the benefit of everyone involved. A society where people, when faced with decisions, act in certain ways not because God told them too, not because it the social norm, but because they know, they can see, what will be good in the long run for mankind.

I can dream.