SeaDemon Says

มานมาแรงกะลังมา กะลังมา

Guwn Theen!

I’ve gotten myself involved with this project now…

I don’t know what to call it…

I have a friend, a Thai Buddhist, whose family is quite well-off. His family has been running a charity of sorts on their private land. They have a primary (elementary) school that they privately fund, for unfortunate children.

Okay…nothing new there. However, they also run a madrasah (well, madrasah is school in Arabic) for Muslim children. Muslims in Thailand are generally of Malay descent. So on top of the normal Thai education curriculum, these children also get their religious education. They also employ tutors from Malaysia to teach Bahasa Melayu and the English Language to these children to prepare them better for the outside world.

While I related this story to my colleague, he told me that he is not surprised. In Myanmar, Myanmarese Buddhists do the same for not just Muslim children, but children of other religious beliefs as well.

So I don’t know what to call myself, and other Muslims. Teletophobic? Homilophobic? Xenophobic? Bogyphobic? Staurophobic? Trophophobic?

You tell me.

This pic was taken by Alice on the 2nd March 2004. I suppose we had just come down from the Gunung Raya Base Station because it was taken at 7.07pm. Muaazam (seen here on the right) and I were making calls then. This apartment became our home for the next 3 months when we were only to be there for two weeks.

How others suffer when one f**ks up!

This picture was taken on the 1st May 2003 from a house in Permatang Kong, Anak Bukit. This would be facing southwards. Gunung Keriang can be seen in the foreground on the right. Somehow I felt the urge to take this photo.

I have not gone back there for more than two years actually, to that kampung. This area is among my “playgrounds” when I was still a serving Air Force officer.

This picture was taken using an Exilim EX-MX2.