That Witch, Inflation Eats Our Earnings Away

Title: That Witch, Inflation Eats Our Earnings Away
Raj Patel of guardian.co.uk wrote this article about inflation. Yes we can blame external shocks, mainly high fuel and commodities prices, oil, coal, grains etc. Natural disasters that affect production of food and commodities are also to blame. Increased affluence in some countries also stokes the demand for food, hence stoking inflation.
China, India, ASEAN countries and Brazil have become more affluent lately, and the first thing people spend more when they are richer, is more quality food, clothing and housing, which translates to more demand on commodities.
I agree with Mr Patel and the World Bank that freer market helps lower prices in urban areas, whatever that cannot be produced locally at a competitive and cheap price, can be imported. But that would kill off local production, contributing to a higher price of the said produce in the future. Well designed public feeding and public works programmes gives people jobs, but this requires government spending which is inflationary.
In the short term, government and policy makers has to accept that commodity prices will stay high. Hence government must handle this issue of feeding the people and fair distribution of food. Hence well designed programme that feed the poor and hungry is necessary, even if that will mean higher government spending. Food grant and welfare payment for the poor and also public works programmes that will provide jobs. A content population would less likely to stir unrest. Yes it is inflationary.
In the medium term, investment must be made in food and commodity production, food doesn’t grow in an instant, land must be plough first before seeds planted. Infrastructure for farming has to be built. Without these new investments in food production, food production cannot increase and cannot meet increased demand.
What is more important, the country’s economic structure must be rearranged, more focus on food and commodity production as a larger portion in GNP. It is all well that the country has been steadily increasing industrial and service sector production to earn higher and higher incomes, but this has been at the expense of agricultural production which feeds the populace. So it’s no surprise that food prices have been steadily increasing. This call for new government policies that encourage food production, as well as incentives that encourage food production.
Look at Tunisia lately, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/28/tunisia-ben-ali,
1. High youth unemployment, and high unemployment overall.
2. 1 in 40 adult male is a policeman, which translate to high proportion government servant.
3. The economy has high proportion in service sector, ie resorts, hotels that cater for European tourists.
So the seeds of Tunisian discontent can be summarised in high food prices, unemployment and envy of wealth. What are worse the ruling elite displays their wealth, ill-gotten or not.
If we learn anything from this, we must handle these issues of unemployment, inflation, high food prices and unfair distribution of income immediately.

Story for My Mother: Lindu

When I was young, growing up in a village we did experience earthquake, very rarely. Even then it was normally Indonesian earthquake that we felt. My late father explained to me that deep underground, there is a big animal kind of being, it is asleep all the time, waiting for the day at the end of time, when it will get up and move about. That will be the end of time, Qiamat. When this animal moves, the earth surface will also move, the mountains and hills will fly like cloud. Earthquake or lindu (earthquake in Javanese language) happened because the animal moves a little bit in its sleep. You see, before the end of time, God forbids this animal from moving even a little bit, and God assigned angels to take care of this animal, ie the angel’s duty is to forbid this animal from moving one bit.
But from time to time, this animal sneezed and move in its sleep. Hence the earthquakes. If you think this earthquakes are bad and terrifying, wait until the day of Qiamat, the End of Time. That day the mountains, hills, and trees will fly like dust and feather. You will regret that never believe in the End of Days. Your repentance that day will be useless. Your regret of your past misdeeds and mischief will not be accepted by God Almighty.
Now before you start jumping up and down and say that the continents of the earth is floating on molten hot rocks, continental drift and the subduction of the edge of tectonic plates that cause earthquakes, yeah I know that.
I suppose if you think of it, we wouldn’t know how the earth would behave, and as we know that the continents are moving like cloud, creating pressure at the subduction zone. What if there is an increased activity at the centre of the earth? The molten part flow faster, which would cause the continents drift faster. And then earthquakes occur frequently to release the build up pressure. Can we predict earthquakes? No.
Everything that has happened and will happen is already written in the Loh Mahfuz.
75. And there is nothing hidden in the heaven and the earth, but is in a Clear Book (i.e. Al-Lauh Al-Mahfûz).

In Memory of My Father; Hamzah Kusni 1933-2008

In Memory of My Father; Hamzah Kusni 1933-2008
As far as I remember, from the old days, my late father never had much clothing to his name. One pair of old work trousers and shirt, which were of rag quality and had patches, and about two pairs of normal trousers and shirts which he normally wore to market or kenduris. He didn’t have much in line of clothing, when his normal clothes wore out, he would wear it to work. No, my father didn’t need to wear fancy clothes for work. His work was mainly plucking down coconut from coconut tree, using 2-3 long stick of bamboo tied together, with a curved knife at the top end. Coconut tree is usually 20-40 feet high, thus a specialized job.
What else in the line of clothing that my father had? One or two kain pelikat, a songkok and a hat. Songkok is a kind of headwear that he normally wore for prayers, and to the mosque. He wore the hat at work, and to the market. Considering the type of job he did, a pith helmet was more appropriate, I think.
The late Ustadz Ashaari once told us that those people who had nothing much will have easier time during the Counting Time. For each and every thing that we ever owned, we will be asked....
Allah knows, I have way, way too many belongings.

Thanking you in advance for reciting AlFatihah for the benefit of my late father..

pictures from my garden

lettuce for salad anyone? come over..


Amaranth, Mekong Red..or bayam merah.

this one will ripe soon, yum.


pegaga...dulu kat kampung punyalah banyak..

Story from the Earthquake Zone

It was Saturday morning at 4.35am. I was half awake, since the beginning of Ramadan, it has been my almost daily routine to wake up early at least half an hour before dawn. Normally I would wake at that time, to eat my breakfast before dawn, sahur and then perform solat tahajud before fajr or after dawn prayer. That morning was a bit different; I was contemplating of getting another wink of sleep.
Then the shaking start, and I knew then it was earthquake. I thought it was just a small one, but it goes on and on for almost a minute, the house swayed, and the swing of the pendulum, if you put pendulum on a string, getting longer. The light bulb above the bed swayed violently, and my wife yell earthquake and starts finding her way to the kitchen. The children also got up; they cowered under the bed for safety. We walked in the dark to the kitchen during the earthquake, my wife insisted on protecting her crystals and china in the display cabinet in the lounge. By the time we made our way to the lounge, the crystals and china were falling from the shelves...and then it stops.
We turned on the light, plates, glasses were all over the floor, broken. Our TV was face down on the floor too. I turned on the kettle to make tea and breakfast. Fifteen minutes later the light was out. Then there is an aftershock, another earthquake, strong enough but not as big as the first one. We told the children to go back to sleep. No point staying awake, we are not badly affected and our house is still standing in one piece.
People in our neighbourhood start to get out of their houses and start their cars, some were driving around surveying the damages and came back. A few walked around in our street. I sent a sms to Husin, and called Kak Julie checking if they are okay. Alhamdulillah they are okay. Husin sent a sms saying that he tried to call me but couldn’t get through. After fajr prayer, I went back to sleep.
Sulaiman, a friend from Malaysia who arrived the previous night were staying at a motel in Riccarton. I rang him up that morning and he was okay, he told me that was a surreal experience. He said that he drove around the city that early morning, and told me that a few old buildings have collapsed. One new building near Victoria Square has visible crack on it.
We got our electricity back about 10am, and sent a message to my sister telling her that about the earthquake and we were okay. Then we found out it was a 7.1 earthquake on the Richter scale.

Our water was still cut off until after 1pm, and that late morning I got on my bike and went to the city. Most part of the city was blocked off. Central business district was cordoned off, the police were guarding at every intersection. I cycled around and took some pictures, which I posted on facebook.
">http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/photo.php?pid=6937510&id=739829656&ref=fbx_album
That night I went to tarawih prayer with Sulaiman at Masjid An Nur, we were reminded that Allah has the power of over our lives, that we were on the jaws of death less than 24 hour ago.
The aftershock kept on coming. There was another big one that Monday morning, registering at 5.4, but life has to go on as usual. Snippets of reports from delivery drivers that I met range from the closure of Lyttelton Tunnel, Westfield Mall Riccarton and pungent smell of sulphur around Lyttelton.
What worries me is that recent epicentres of the earthquake are closer to Lyttelton Harbour. We all know that Lyttelton Harbour is an extinct volcano. We also know that New Zealand was formed by the meeting of Pacific Plate and Indo-Australian Plate, where the boundaries make up the Southern Alps in the South Island. What if these recent earthquake activity open up old fissures that was an extinct volcano Lyttelton Harbour and its sister Akaroa Harbour? I read this Tectonic Plates theory in Geology class more than 20 years ago. Little did I know that it is written in the Quran. Thanks to Uztadz Asraff Ayob (http://www.asraffayob.com/love-the-live-u-live/gempa-petanda-lailatul-qadar-kah-atau/#more-214) in his article about the earthquake.

And you see the mountains, thinking them rigid, while they will pass as the passing of clouds. [It is] the work of Allah, who perfected all things. Indeed, He is Acquainted with that which you do.
Muhsin Khan
And you will see the mountains and think them solid, but they shall pass away as the passing away of the clouds. The Work of Allah, Who perfected all things, verily! He is Well-Acquainted with what you do.

On Wednesday I was invited to attend a function at CIC Lincoln Road. Datuk Hasnudin Hamzah, the Malaysian High Commissioner to New Zealand, and Mark Stewart, Honorary Malaysian Consul in Christchurch was there answering questions from those who attended. What shocked me was the level of trauma among Christchurch Malaysian community.
I went home after the first two questions. I was disappointed and embarrassed at the same time

Some friends keep in touch thru Blog, some friend keep in touch thru Facebook.

A few minutes ago, an old friend from the primary school days sent me a message thru facebook, asking me to delete comment sent anonymously on my blog.

He said he has been reading my blog once in a while. I knew him back in primary school, Sekolah Dato' Manan, aeons ago, in 1976. Havent been in contact nor seen him since.
My apologies to you, that those damaging comment appeared on my blog. I have since deleted them, after googling about how to delete comment.
Please do keep in contact, after all we are from the same town, same primary school, same village. Only that we havent met nor seen each other for 34 years. Facebook is a good medium for people to catch up with each other, and I regret that you also disable yours.

Story for My Mother XIV: Tafsir Mimpi, The Meaning of Dreams

Say (O Muhammad (SAW) to these Mushrikûn and Kâfirûn): “O Al-Kâfirûn (disbelievers in Allâh, in His Oneness, in His Angels, in His Books, in His Messengers, in the Day of Resurrection, and in Al-Qadar)! (1) “I worship not that which you worship, (2) “Nor will you worship that which I worship. (3) “And I shall not worship that which you are worshipping. (4) “Nor will you worship that which I worship. (5) “To you be your religion, and to me my religion (Islâmic Monotheism).” (6)



Story for My Mother XIV: Tafsir Mimpi, The Meaning of Dreams
No this isnt my mother’s story, but rather a story for my mother. Not that there is any likelyhood that my mother would read this, she does not do internet, nor read English. I just hope that one of my brother or sister would read this and relate to my mother.
In early years, my parents, especially my mother always tell me stories of her dreams, and tried to figure out what it means. Once up on a time, not long after my grandfather Haji Daud Marhakim passed away in 1974ish, my late father related to me his dream of meeting my grandfather at a banquet with lots of food. One particular fruit that my father remembers was grapes. My father said that he had been reciting zikr for the benefit of my grandfather. My grandmother Maryam in 1978ish had also distributed items of clothing that once belonged to my late grandfather, one kain pelikat among them. I had taken the kain pelikat to school for prayer a couple of times myself, but it was used mostly by my father for prayers.
Three nights ago I had a dream, in my dream I was arguing about something with my wife. In my dream I was reciting a Surah from Quran, the meaning of the Surah is about ‘my deen, my way, these people lifestyle, not ours’ and the other Surah is about ‘There is only One God, no other’. In my dream I recited the Surahs clearly and my eyes waters. My wife went quiet and the argument ended. Later in the morning as I remember it was Surah AlKafiruun and Surah Ikhlas. All morning I did gardening job around the house, while trying to remember again and figuring out the meaning. That afternoon Syed Husin Heykal ring up and come over, we went to SuperShed to look for secondhand bike. I related my dream to him in the car.
Husin told me that in Islam, dream has meaning, regardless of what Western philosopher or what Freud said about dream, but we have to be careful interpreting dream. Some dream are from Iblis, which would encourage us to do bad deed and perform sihir. Then if we do Iblis bidding and encouragement, we will surely go to hellfire. If the dream ask us to read some Surah back to front, then surely its wrong and from Iblis. Husin said that my dream is about reciting Surah AlKafiruun and Surah Ikhlas, which examining the meaning of the Surahs, can relate to my life.
“Kalau kau nak tanya samada mimpi kau itu sebagai satu petunjuk supaya kau amalkan baca Surah AlKafiruun dan Surah Ikhlas, rasanya iya, sebab sebab ianya tidak salah dari segi agama.”
Husin then related a story. There was an army personnel friend from Kedah whom he knows, who was stationed in Sabah. “Orang Sabah ni angker”he said. I heard that statement before. He disappeared and didn’t contact his parent and family for a long time, about 9 years. So his family were looking for him, and prayed to Allah that he come back. Then one day he came back. Apparently he had married a Sabah girl, and forgotten about his parent and family in Semenanjung. Coming back to Semenanjung, he had divorced his Sabahan wife. His parent find a suitable wife for him from his village and he got married again.
“Tapi bila dia nak guna anu dia tak hidup, tak boleh pakai. Enam tahun dia cuba berubat sana sini jumpa bomoh jumpa ustadz namun tak ada kesan. Isteri dia minta cerai, tak tahan.”
“Satu masa dia jumpa sorang ustadz, dan ustadz tu kata bahawa masalah kau tu aku tak ada jalan penyelesaiannya, tapi kau amalkanlah Tiga Qul, ie Surah Ikhlas, Surah AlFalaq and Surah AnNas. Amalkanlah setiap hari, semoga Tuhan berikan jalan penyelesaian kepada masalah kau.”
When Prophet Muhammad SAW was sick on his bed after being affected by sihir, black magic, Jibril came to him and confirmed that The Prophet SAW was affected by sihir, black magic. The Prophet was taught to recite these three Surahs and he was free from sihir.
“ Jadi dia bacalah setiap hari, setiap lepas sembahyang, 33kali, 133 kali, etc dah jadi wirid sampai dekat 2 tahun. Tiba tiba isteri dia yang dari Sabah itu datang jumpa dia, dan di berikannya satu loket. Dalam loket itu ada satu keladi kecik yang hidup subur.”
From what I understand, his manhood is in that locket. How is that so, don’t ask me, thats black magic. So he can use his manhood again...
Husin told me that Allah particularly likes odd numbers, so when we recite zikr, or recite Surah, do recite in odd numbers, 3, 7, 11, 33 or 133 times.