Diam!

Diam

Pic: A spray paint art found hidden in a corner of S&M Shopping Mall in KL. Says it all (Most probably gone now after they repainted the building for the Merdeka (Independence) Celebrations in August.

Urrgh, this must be one of those days when you wake up and it feels like nothing good is going your way. The morning began with a severe case of headache and diarrhea which up to now has foreseen at least 4 trips to the loo. I'm stuck alone here with my girlfriend Laura away on a field trip and my roomie in another field trip! Add on to this the fact that ants are mysteriously appearing in my room table and might be trying to colonise my external hard disk as their new nesting hole. Dirty laundry piling up in the corner, someone ate my chocolate bar and the list goes on! Well just posting something off hand to amuse everyone out there.

There are days when you just wished everyone would just shut up and leave you in peace or days that you just wished to let your mind out. For me today it feels like a little of both. Freedom of speech, well there a lot of debate in Malaysia whether we really have the freedom to speak our minds out loud. It's not the fact that we're not allowed to speak out, rather the fact that people either:

1) Don't bother to say what's on their mind

2) There's really nothing in most people's mind worth stating in the first place or

3) Other people really don't care a rat's a_ _ about what we have to say.

It's not true that we can't say anything. If the usual channels are not open for one to voice their opinion, well we can always rely on the makciks (housewives or elderly woman) in the markets, the old ah paks (elderly gentlemen) in the coffeeshops, and even your usual sundry shop owner can be a source for the latest updates in the country. News through these channels usually spreads faster than your local satellite dish. Walk into any coffeeshop during any hot happenings and you'll hear the average Joe become an expert in whatever field, be it politics, how soccer managers should run their teams, the latest inane education policies or even the latest health fad diet. I assure you it'll be more lively, interesting and imaginative than anything they discuss in the Parliament. Never mind that most of the time what's being discussed is either a blatant fabrication, overblown or just another conspiracy theory from people's overactive imagination, in the end all we want is to hear good gossip right?

But I'm all for free speech, heck I'm getting bashed up by people all the time and that's their right, right? Even the American president is not immune to verbal bashing from talk show hosts, though if that happens here you might find that particular host gone for a spell to who knows where. Inside all of us is a critic that's for sure. So let no one push you around shouting "Diam!" as the most basic fundamentals is our right to have an opinion even if others agree to disagree with us as someone I know rightly puts it, now that's freedom of speech.