Brown & Proud

Yes, it is high time that you folks are rewarded with a motivational wallpaper from me.

This blog has impacted more lives than it was originally intended to do.

It has indeed more social significance to the more thinking net-surfing denizens and its social consequence will permeate deep into the minds of those who think, long after I am gone.

Being a mat has lots to do with being Brown&Proud.

Being Brown & Proud does not mean you take it to the people with the in-your-face attitude.
You stand tall with pride. If there is something severely lacking in you, confidence, cash, car, condo, cleverness whatver, just fall back on confidence. Because you are brown. Because you're a mat. Because have it. We, you, me, are all lacking in one thing or another. And yet we are gifted in many other ways. Am I right or am I right?

A somewhat clever friend questioned if my line of thought was ok?
You mean you just have to be proud because they are brown?
"What if they are yellow? Tanned? Dark skinned?," he continued.

To him I say, the Chinese diaspora have done them proud as they move to conquer one major city to another. Is there not a Chinatown in any major city in the world? Their vast business empires stretches from the far Orient to Latin America to Australia. The rise of China as a superpower will see a transformation in the next 20 years beyond our wildest imagination.

If it was the Japs, that he meant, then they had the Bushido Code and the samurai warrior work ethic. They conquered he entire SouthEastAsia. Only an atomic bomb could stand in their way.

The Latinos have an entire continent and they always end up top 3 in any MsUniverse pageant. Ok they have strength in numbers.

The Africans have a continent of their own and are born physically strong. They Invented Black&Proud.

The Indians are world class IT professionals and the business community thrives on networking and a build-it-first repair it later.

The Blacks have a president in the White House, Oprah, even a super-hero (Hancock) and they have rose from the chains of slavery to enslaving the the world with their RnB platinums.

The Browns never found anything they could be proud of.
They tried literature.
They tried fancy dancemoves. (Malay folk dance - now replaced by ShuffleDance).

They are, at best, known for they best conduct and mannersim. Perhaps because they are bullied into submission? Perhaps all they could do is smile when things are taken away from them, one iota at a time?
I do not discount the fact that there is the martial artform silat. But how many of us are well versed in these arts?

Little did they realise that they were among the first to receive Islam some 500 years already,
yet their numbers who can speak a splinter of Arabic is astonishingly squat.

The talk about the rilex one corner, yet they go round and round in circles... searching. For meaning. For identity. For purpose. For pride.

{That's why I have always been pissed off with the junk they put on Malay TV. Potraying gangsterism, bad mannerisms, scandalism - these things just like the effect of the skanks on MTV or Desperate Housewives - instills in the minds of many, the young, of the old, the society at large, what is the acceptable code of conduct. When a person or a group of persons is continuously subjected to }

Don't pretend to be who you are not.
Because at the end of it all, you look like a fool.

Point in case, MatShishaStepArab (rightly coined by a longtime friend ProfYessNott now relocated to Australia) commonly found at the half-sedated in dingy dark alleys of smoky ArabStreet shisha parlours. Around 11pm on any other given day, try scouring the back lanes of ArabStreets, there you will find. Collapsed like opium-drugged addicts, they are sprawled all over the scruffy tainted carpets in dimmed light, eyes glazed... dreaming....

Of course accompanying them are the MinahShishaStepArab. Young girls, some office girls, some underaged schoolgirls. Pretty ones. fat ones. Ugly ones. You probably be telling me right now "Hey bro, live with the times dahhh." Proper conduct is timeless bro. ]Knowing your self-worth is non time-dependent bro.

Their distant cousin MinahMotorStepGarangNaikScambler is another phenomenon. I would not have mentioned this if I had not knocked down one of them yesterday. Parading an unsightly, rear end that would smack stop a dirt truck driver by the sheer size of that burgeoning butt.

Disillusioned, misguided souls on the highways of Life.

Now, these are examples of misplaced pride.
They are Brown&Proud too. ProudWannabe.

I would say I spend quite a decent number of hour at undisclosed McDonald locations, hijacking the wireless connection and finding serenity in Class 95FM playing overhead. A Chinese friend asked me why Malay boys like to work as delivery? Do you see the youths of other races race risk their lives to deliver double paty DoubleCheese burgers? At the same time, I see right in front of me non-brown youths studying (in order of popularity, Finance Accountancy, Science, Law, Engineering) late into the nights. Why this disparity?

Are they sacrificing the present for a better future?

Do the right thing.
Do the smart thing. Plan a purposeful life.

It all comes back to faith. To religion.
The religion teaches you to keep track of time.
To be discipline. To achieve.

To persevere. To be resilient in the face of adversity.
Not to destroy. Or not to infuence other lives to be destroyed.
To hope and to pray to a greater power that your prayers are heard.
And your good intentions will be rewarded in time.

Burn those caps.
Sell away those skateboards on eBay.
To the minahs on bike, sell them away.
Take public transport.
If you must, get a scooter.

Be Brown Be Proud.
Do what you do best.
Relax.
But Think.
Make a Prayer.
Then Move With Purpose.
If you are tired, rest. Then move again.

May the wallpaper serve you well.