Tagging?

I am a bad blogger and I only just started adding tags to ALL my posts, not just the chats and the posts about friends. Should I go back and tag all the rest of them too? 

First Amendment

I find it funny when people express a very strong opinion, and then duck out of the criticism process by saying “BUT this is just MY opinion/perception”. 

GEE REALLY? I COULDN’T TELL THAT YOU WERE EXPRESSING AN OPINION OR THAT IT WAS JUST YOUR PERCEPTION. You don’t need to tell people what you think of something, and then tell them, “but this is just what I think.” It’s stating the obvious. It’s like saying “I have a really cool bike. But it’s just my bike.” Or something along those lines.

My guess is that when people offer up “this is just MY opinion” as a defence, what they really mean is “this is MY opinion! Which I am entitled to! There’s freedom of speech and expression in this country! So don’t challenge me, how dare you challenge this opinon of mine!”

Well yeah I already know you have an opinion, it’s kind of in my face. What I really want to know is WHY you have this opinion. What I want is for you to defend it, and citing your right to have an opinion is not a defence. I find it hilarious when people use it as an excuse to back out of defending their opinion against critique.

So many arguments have ended with “…but this is just my opinion. I respect you have your own, can you respect mine?” Sure I can! But my questioning your opinion doesn’t mean I’m not respecting your right to have it. I just want you to argue it out with me. Back it up with solid facts and logic. If you have an opinion, it can’t be based on nothing right? You were smart enough to come up with one on your own. Now you should be brave enough to tell the world why you think so. 

But then this is just my opinion…….

This needs to be said

I’m happy that Nayati Moodliar has been found.

But I’m very upset that his case received a hundred times more attention - from the media, online community and PDRM - than any of these cases ever will.

(source: In Memory of Nurin Jazlin)

(source: Official Website of PDRM)

At the bottom of the page, it says that there are a total of 405 entries. 

They’ve all been missing longer than Nayati has, and none of them received as much attention. At most, I saw washed-out posters of them at LRT stations. There was no Twitter hashtag, and no huge online following. After a couple of days, the hype surrounding their disappearance died down and was never brought up again. 

(Somehow I can’t find/open the Nur Alert page. Does anyone know the link?)

And don’t tell me nobody else has noticed the connection between Nayati’s socio-economic background and the level of concern the world showed. Children all over Malaysia go missing all the time, but ONE kid from upper-middle-class Malaysia disappears, and the internet goes crazy for five days straight. The storm showed no sign of dying down despite the ruckus that happened over the weekend. I imagine it would have gone on for as long as he remained missing. The disparity is glaring.

This is not the fault of the Moodliar family. Like I said, I’m really glad the boy has been found, safe and PHYSICALLY sound after almost a week in captivity. What are the chances of that happening? What is in question here is our priorities as Malaysians. Why have we shown more concern for the plight of Nayati Moodliar than all the other missing child cases? Was it because he and his family were expatriates? Was it because he, too, was from upper-middle-class Malaysia - much like most of the online community? What does that say about our attitude to the other missing children not from upper-middle-class Malaysia?

I’ll leave you to answer those questions. But to me, the discrimination is staring us in the face. And I dare any of you to deny it.

My heart goes out to the families of those who still have missing children. Their agony continues. I’m asking for CONSISTENCY here. So dear online community, PDRM and Hishammuddin, until I see the same level concern shown for all missing children, I’m not celebrating. 

I really wanted to do the 30 day letter challenge. But then I realized half of them would be written to the same person.