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Friday, April 07, 2006

The Man in the Wig


As I was reading an amusing newspaper article on Gerard's blog, I was bombarded with two trains of thoughts. My right brain was shaking its angry fist. My left brain, being the more rational of the couple, was trying to push away the anger signals his other-half (literally and metaphorically) was indignantly sending to me. It is as if he (yes, it's a 'he', being the more rational one) was shouting out "Don't listen to her! This is a funny situation!".

So boy and girl are caught hugging and kissing in a park. Some dumb mallet-wielding bloke in a wig bangs his little thing and suggests that boy and girl should spend some time apart, wearing jumpsuits and eating the same food they serve at Murni's.

So, this is Malaysia, a multiracial country. I'll give you that. But a tolerant multiracial country?

He even goes on to imply that hugging and kissing in public is immoral. What are the jurisidictions of morality? Is showing affection a question of being moral?

There was a time, ages ago; when children were seen and not heard and women would only stay at home, that if you went out to public places wearing a short skirt (irregardless of whether you're a man or a woman), you'd most certainly be stoned to death. But times have changed. Children are now telling their parents to shut the bloody hell up. And your boss wears a blouse and Manolo stilettos.

Now you're protesting and saying that morality should not change with time. And bloody hell, you're right. Shooting someone in the face for his car (or horse and carriage, back then) is still wrong, fifty years down the line. If you stole gold coins a hundred years ago, you'd be as guilty today for using someone else's credit card on eBay. It's the principle behind the act that doesn't change.

So why all this big media fuss over the couple who kissed in the park? You don't see such coverage and followup when there is a rape case, which is far worse in every respect. Obviously there is a big dispute over this issue. Sadly for that bloke who thinks that hugging and kissing is not acceptable in our culture.

Like I mentioned, times have changed. Some (and by some, I mean most) people should really accept that now, cars have 8 automatic forward gears, you can shoot light into your cornea to rid your nose of its glasses, and that mobile phones have made video cameras, PDAs, laptops and very soon, microwave ovens; obselete. Why embrace only half of what the advancement of time offers?

Humping in the car backseat can move out to the streets in the next 10 years for all I care. What will they disagree with next? That solar-powered coffee makers should be banned because they would decrease TNB's profits? Or ethanol-powered cars, because Petronas would suffer huge losses?

For now, I pray that the sentence will be lifted. Can't quite imagine the treatment they'll give the guy, getting jailtime for hugging and kissing.

Maybe they'll order him the Claypot Loh Shi Fun.