masterwordsmith-unplugged

I was quite taken aback this morning when I read this article in NST that also appeared in Malaysia Today. The tone of the article seems to indicate the adverse reaction of the writer to the use of color in different social situations and his cluelessness as to the symbolism of 'black'. Caution - reading the article may raise your blood pressure so be forewarned.

Let's have a look at what he said:

SOME folks want to colour code us. There has been talk that people have been asked to gather in Ipoh and wear black for the much-awaited sitting of the state assembly tomorrow. Just like in neighbouring countries, some want our political activism to be reflected by the shirts we wear.

I am not sure why the colour black was chosen. Ideally, primary colours are preferred, of course, but black is cool, too. But it can be also ominous and threatening. Or are they in mourning?

During the reformasi days in the late 1990s, it was red, copying the Indonesian political activism then that chose the colour as a rallying cry against their government.

Similarly, the Bersih de-monstration chose yellow after the Thai pro-monarch groups.

During the protest march against the use of English for the teaching of Mathematics and Science, the colour of choice was white. It must have cost a lot of money to have all those shirts made.

Apart from the obvious problems brought about by the demonstrations, one would ask what purpose is served by such gatherings.

I hope it is just a show of collective displeasure in the political developments in the state and nothing more than that.

I am rather agnostic about the desire to express anger and dissent by demonstration. As much as I think it is a waste of time -- the ballot boxes after all await us sooner or later -- I also believe people should be allowed to gather peacefully if they want to.

* The Black Flag was flown by certain irregular Confederate Army units in the American Civil War of 1861-1865 to symbolize that they would neither give, nor accept quarter; symbolizing the opposite of the white flag of surrender.

* The black flag is the traditional anarchist symbol

* The Anarchist black flag has been an anarchist symbol since the 1880s. Anarchists use either a plain black flag or a black flag with an "A" and an "O" around it, this symbol is a reference to a Proudhon quote, meaning anarchy is the mother of order .

* Black flags are often associated with funerals in the West, particularly state funerals and public mourning.

* In former Yugoslavia, a plain black flag is the flag of mourning. It is displayed for 40 days after death on the deceased person's house.
* A black flag was used by Muhammad to represent his religion.

* Black Flag is another name for the Jolly Roger, a skull and crossbones on a black background, and is associated with pirates.

Black is used for anarchist symbolism, sometimes split in diagonal with other colors to show alignment with another political philosophy. Wearing black clothing is also sometimes an anarchist tactic during demonstrations, with a practical benefit of not attracting attention and making later identification of a subject difficult. This strategy is referred to as a black bloc.

A black bloc refers to a tactic, developed in the 1980s by anti-nuclear activist autonomists, whereby participants attended protests and marches wearing black clothing, ski masks and motorcycle helmets with padding, steel-toed boots and often carrying their own shields and truncheons. The clothing is used to avoid being identified by authorities, and to theoretically appear as one large mass, promote solidarity, and create a clear revolutionary presence.

* Graduates wear black robes for their graduation.

* Black tuxedos are worn at formal occasions known as black tie functions.

* Black is worn by religious figures within Christianity, e.g. priests (especially of the older religious denominations), monks and nuns.

* Hassidic Jews also wear .

* Black is worn by some Muslim women; see List of types of sartorial hijab for photographs of examples such as the abaya.

* Lawyers and judges often wear black robes.

* Many performers of European classical music or other serious art music dress in black for a concert or recital.

* Members of the modern goth and some punk subcultures dress predominantly in black (see also goth fashion).

* A "black day" (or week or month) usually refers to a sad or tragic time.

* The Romans marked fasting days with white stones and nefasti days with black.

* The Wall Street Crash 1929, the stock market crash on October 29, 1929 which is the start of the Great Depression, is nicknamed Black Tuesday, and was preceded by Black Thursday, a downturn on October 24 the previous week.

* Black Monday, stock market crash on October 19, 1987.

* Black Wednesday caused Britain to pull out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.

* Black Friday, various tragic events. (Exception: See Black Friday (shopping).)

* Black months include:

- the Black September in Jordan, in which thousands of people were killed.
- Black July killing of the Tamil population by the Sinhalese government in normal.
- Black Spring 2001 (Printemps noir), in the Berber region of Kabylia (Algeria), when the
police shot and killed more than 100 people.

* The Black Death, also known as the Black Plague, was a pandemic in Europe which killed tens of millions of people.

* The Black Hole of Calcutta was the overcrowding of an impromptu prison cell in which many died.

* A black-hearted person is mean and unloving.

* A blacklist is a list of undesirable persons or entities (to be placed on the list is to be "blacklisted").

* Black comedy is a form of comedy dealing with morbid and serious topics.

* A black mark against you is a bad thing.

* A black mood is a bad one (cf Winston Churchill's clinical depression, which he
called "my black dog").[4]

* black market is used to denote the trade of illegal goods, or alternatively the illegal
trade of otherwise legal items at considerably higher prices, e.g. to evade rationing.

* Black propaganda is the use of known falsehoods, partial truths, or masquerades in propaganda to confuse an opponent.

* Blackmail is the act of threatening to reveal information about a person unless the threatened party fulfills certain demands. This information is usually of an embarrassing or socially damaging nature. Ordinarily, such a threat is illegal.

* If you sink the black eight-ball in billiards before all others are out of play, you lose.

* The black sheep of the family is the ne'er-do-well.

* To blackball someone is to block their entry into a club or some such institution. In the traditional English gentlemen's club, current members vote on the admission of a candidate by secretly placing a white or black ball in a hat. If upon the completion of voting, there was even one black ball amongst the white, the candidate would be denied membership, and he would never know who had "blackballed" him.

* Black tea in the Western culture is known as "crimson tea" in Chinese and culturally influenced languages, (Mandarin Chinese hóngchá; Japanese kōcha; Korean hongcha), perhaps a more accurate description of the color of the liquid.

* "The black" is a wildfire suppression term referring to a burned area on a wildfire capable of acting as a safety zone.

A man is flying in a hot air balloon and realizes he is lost. He reduces height and spots a man down below. He lowers the balloon further and shouts, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised my friend I would meet him half an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The man below says, "Yes. You are in a hot air balloon, hovering approximately 30 feet above this field. You are between 40 and 42 degrees N. latitude, and between 58 and 60 degrees W. longitude."

"You must be an engineer," says the balloonist.

"I am," replies the man. "How did you know."

"Well," says the balloonist, "everything you have told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I am still lost."

The man below says "You must be a manager."

"I am," replies the balloonist, "but how did you know?"

"Well," says the man, "you don't know where you are, or where you are going. You have made a promise which you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. The fact is you are in the exact same position you were in before we met, but now it is somehow my fault."

I was born in a secluded village on a mountain. Day by day, my parents plowed the yellow dry soil with their backs towards the sky. I have a brother who is 3 years younger than me. I wanted to buy a handkerchief, which all girls around me seemed to have.

So, one day I stole 50 cents from my father's drawer. Father had discovered about the stolen money right away.

He made me and my younger brother kneel against the wall as he held a bamboo stick in his hand. 'Who stole the money?' he asked. I was stunned, too afraid to talk. Neither of us admitted to the fault, so he said, 'Fine, if nobody wants to admit, you two should be beaten!' He lifted up the bamboo stick.

Suddenly, my younger brother gripped my father's hand and said,' Dad, I was the one who did it!' The long stick smacked my brother's back repeatedly.

Father was so angry that he kept on whipping my brother until he lost his breath. After that, he sat down on our stone bed and scolded my brother, 'You have learned to steal from your own house now. What other embarrassing things will you be possibly doing in the future? You should be beaten to death, you shameless thief!'

That night, my mother and I hugged my brother. His body was full of wounds from the beating but he never shed a single tear. In the middle of the night, all of sudden, I cried out loudly.

My brother covered my mouth with his little hand and said, ' Sis, now don't cry anymore. Everything has happened.'

I still hate myself for not having enough courage to admit what I did.

Years have gone by, but the incident still seemed like it just happened yesterday. I will never forget my brother's expression when he protected me.

That year, my brother was 8 years old and I was 11 years old. When my brother was in his last year of secondary school, he was accepted in an upper secondary school in the central. At the same time, I was accepted into a university in the province.

That night, father squatted in the yard, smoking, packet by packet.

I could hear him ask my mother, 'Both of our children, they have good results? very good results?'

Mother wiped off her tears and sighed,' What is the use? How can we possibly finance both of them?'

At that time, my brother walked out, he stood in front of father and said,'Dad, I don't want to continue my study anymore, I have read enough books.'

Father swung his hand and slapped my brother on his face. 'Why do you have a spirit so damn weak? Even if it means I have to beg for money on the streets, I will send you two to school until you have both finished your study!'

And then, he started to knock on every house in the village to borrow money. I stuck out my hand as gently as I can to my brother's swollen face, and told him, 'A boy has to continue his study; If not, he will not be able to overcome this poverty we are experiencing.'

I, on the other hand, had decided not to further my study at the university. Nobody knew that on the next day, before dawn, my brother left the house with a few pieces of worn-out clothes and a few dry beans. He sneaked to my side of the bed and left a note on my pillow; 'Sis, getting into a university is not easy. I will go find a job and I will send money to you.'

I held the note while sitting on my bed, and cried until I lost my voice.

That year, my brother was 17 years old; I was 20 years old. With the money father borrowed from the whole village, and the money my brother earned from carrying cement on his back at a construction site,finally, I managed to get to the third year of my study in the university.

One day, while I was studying in my room, my roommate came in and told me,'There's a villager waiting for you outside!' Why would there be a villager looking for me? I walked out, and I saw my brother from afar. His whole body was covered with dirt, dust, cement and sand. I asked him, Why did you not tell my roommate that you are my brother?'

He replied with a smile,' Look at my appearance. What will they think if they would know that I am your brother? Won't they laugh at you?'

I felt so touched, and tears filled my eyes. I swept away dirt and dust from my brother's body. And told him with a lump in my throat, ' I don't care what people would say! You are my brother no matter what your appearance is?'

From his pocket, he took out a butterfly hair clip. He put it on my hair and said, 'I saw all the girls in town are wearing it. So, I think you should also have one.'

I could not hold back myself anymore. I pulled my brother into my arms and cried.

That year, my brother was 20 years old; I was 23 years old. I noticed that the broken window was repaired the first time I brought my boyfriend home. The house was scrubbed cleaned.

After my boyfriend left, I danced like a little girl in front of my mother, 'Mom, you didn't have to spend so much time cleaning the house!'

But she told me with a smile,'It was your brother who went home early to clean the house. Didn't you see the wound on his hand? He hurt his hand while he was replacing the window.'

I went into my brother's bedroom. Looking at his thin face, I felt like there are hundreds of needle pricked in my heart. applied some ointment on his wound and put a bandage on it, 'Does it hurt? ' I asked him.

'No, it doesn't hurt. You know, when at the construction site, stones keep falling on my feet . Even that could not stop me from working.'

In the middle of the sentence, he stopped. I turned my back on him and tears rolled down my face.

That year, my brother was 23 years old; I was 26 years old. After I got married, I lived in the city. Many times my husband invited my parents to come and live with us, but they didn't want. They said, once they left the village,they wouldn't know what to do. My brother agreed with them.

He said, 'Sis, you just take care of your parents-in-law. I will take care of mom and dad here.'

My husband became the director of his factory. We asked my brother to accept the offer of being the manager in the maintenance department.

But my brother rejected the offer. He insisted on working as a repairman instead for a start.

One day, my brother was on the top of a ladder repairing a cable, when he got electrocuted, and was sent to the hospital. My husband and I visited him at the hospital. Looking at the white gypsum on his leg, I grumbled, 'Why did you reject the offer of being a manager? Managers won't do something dangerous like that. Now look at you, You are suffering a serious injury. Why didn't you just listen to us?'

With a serious expression on his face, he defended his decision, 'Think of my brother-in-law. He just became the director, and I being uneducated, and would become a manager, what kind of rumors would fly around?'

My husband's eyes filled up with tears, and then I said, 'But you lack in education only because of me!' 'Why do you talk about the past?' he said and then he held my hand.

That year, he was 26 years old and I was 29 years old. My brother was 30 years old when he married a farmer girl from the village.

During the wedding reception, the master of ceremonies asked him, 'Who is the one person you respect and love the most?'

Without even taking a time to think, he answered,' My sister.' He continued by telling a story I could not even remember.

'When I was in primary school, the school was in a different village. Everyday, my sister and I would walk for 2 hours to school and back home. One day, I lost the other pair of my gloves. My sister gave me one of hers. She wore only one glove and she had to walk far. When we got home, her hands were trembling because of the cold weather that she could not even hold her chopsticks From that day on, I swore that as long as I live, I would take care of my sister and will always be good to her.'

Applause filled up the room. All guests turned their attention to me. I found it hard to speak, 'In my whole life, the one I would like to thank most is my brother,' And in this happy occasion,in front of the crowd, tears were rolling down my face again.

*Love and care for the one you love every single days of your life.

* You may think what you did is just a small deed, but to that someone, it may mean a lot.

Have a nice day everyone! May this story inspire you in any way!

*This story was emailed to me by Siew Hoon who has given me permission to post it here. Thanks Siew Hoon.

*I do not know who is the author of this story.