Sunday, March 11, 2007

A woman's choice

My art studio is closed today. May be the recent moon eclipse has saddened Apollo. (For the unsuspecting, Apollo is my art teacher's name). I was welcomed home to a Doha Debate on BBC Sunday. The motion before the house is "This House believes the face veil(niqab) is a barrier to integration in the West".

British Muslim Peer, Lord Ahmed of Rotherham, and Reem Maghribi, founder of Sharq magazine and a progressive muslim woman, argue that they didn't want the face veil to become a symbol of Muslims and Islam.

On the opposition are school teacher Ayshah Ismail, who wears the niqab and Ahmed Younis, the former National Director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council in the US. Ayshah told the 300-strong audience that she is fully integrated into British society. She blames ignorance for the lack of acceptance the West has towards the veil. To her face veil is a personal choice and her way to follow the words of Allah, her beloved God.

Delving into the details of the debate or taking sides are not my intention; sharing what touches me is. It was at the end of the debate and Reem made a closing statement by posing to the audience a question. Is the Almighty's intention for muslim woman in this present days to contribute in the integration of the world? With the face veils presenting a hindrance, what choice will the sisters of Islam make?

With lesson learnt from feminists burning their bras in the 60s, I am level-headed enough to know that integration to the west takes more than just the removal of the face veil. However I felt in Reem's voice the frustration of not being able to enrol her fellow sisters in Islam to actively participate in changing the world. I felt for her the passion and yet the pain of shouldering such an impossible mission in awakening in her fellow women the untapped strength they have. To me, she is not just speaking to women in the Islamic world. Her words are valid for all women in the world, regardless of religions, races and geographical locations. We have a choice. Use it well.

posted by Vegie @ 2:53 PM 0 comments

CSI in Mid Valley

A letterbox left unchecked for a week is expected to be choked with discount vouchers, junk mails, and usual monthly stataments from Tenaga to Alam Flora. But the last I expect is a mailer from CSI with the tagline "Protect your Baby" printed loudly across the brochure.

Hold your breadth for this CSI has nothing to do with the criminal thriller that makes cat aunty glued to TV 7 x 24. It stands for CellSafe International, a high tech biotech service specialist which is promoting the storing of cord blood stem-cells of newborn babies amongst expecting parents. It claims that it is the leading stem cells presevation company in Malaysia with the latest state-of-art technology and facility situated at a strategic location none other than North Point of Mid Valley. It went on to explain the storage of stem cells from cord blood can be potentially life-saving for your child, as his stem cells can be accessed at a later date when needed to provide therapeutic treatments available currenyl and in the future.

My mind is blown away. Here I am, with BBC beaming across my living room a debate on the latest controversy of an teacher in UK wearing a veil. Right down my alley is a stem cell research lab. Anwar is going to run in the next election. George Bush is being compared to Hitler. The world is changing right under my nose.

At least one thing is for sure, I am now assured that my little sister's career in life science is a promising one. Time to wipe off the dust on the book cover Genome by Matt Ridley and give it a thorough read. I never managed to flip past chapter 1.....

posted by Vegie @ 1:57 PM 0 comments

Sunday, March 04, 2007

A different perspective

It took me 2 weeks of putting up with constant nagging and another 3 weeks of procrastination before I picked up the contest form. Kimmy got all excited when she caught sight of the poster while slurpping her Penang laksa one day. She went all ga ga over the prospect of winners being able to exhibit at the foodcourts at 3 continents ( ie Penang, Singapore and China) and a juicy prize money enough to afford half a myVii.

Being arrogant, I decided it is not my cup of tea. However Hailam 2, my brother in crime put forward a different perspective. Will I not be curious to find out how I could improve myself ? Will I not find it useful to learn how the public judge arts ? Not for the rewards, but for the process. Indeed, it is not the destination, but the journey that counts.

So here I am, with the entry form in front of me, am struggling to select my best 3 entries and frying my brain for a 50 words paragraph about why I paint.

As an artist, space and light move me. While space evokes the impulse in me to connect, lights captures the defining moment when possibilities revealed themselves. Immortalize space and lights onto canvas are my way of sharing that experience.

More on different perspective :
I practiced the principle recently with my colleague Cat. Our client requested for a modification in the training curriculum as they would like to simplify their logistic arrangement. Cat felt that the suggested changes would impact the learning outcome. She is right but client is not wrong. Instead of bulldozing her into accepting client's concern on logistic, I walked through the client's suggestion from the perspective of learning outcome. During the process, we worked on solutions to address the concern that Cat brought up. Viola, within 5 minutes, she gave her node to the client's suggestion. Both client and us are happy.

I learn that in a discussion, there are so many different ways to come to an agreement. To convince someone to agree with something, the secret might just be to explain my suggestion through the eyes of the other party. Put my ego neatly in my handbag and wear that person's shoes. Mom used to say "all routes lead to Rome". As long as we agree to the same conclusion, it really does not matter from whose perspective we have taken.

posted by Vegie @ 10:33 AM 2 comments