Here are a couple of articles that gave me hope and which I appreciated.
On respect, thinking and dialogue – Interview with Tariq Ramadan (theSun)
The day I spoke at the Hall of Holy Spirit – by Mujahid Yusuf Rawa (Malaysian Insider)
Meanwhile, broken glass has been found near the outside wall of a mosque in Kota Samarahan, Sarawak.
While the the spate of attacks on religious sites is cause for concern, Bursa Malaysia has more worldly worries.
Few young adults are investing in the Kuala Lumpur stock market. A survey has revealed that only 12 per cent of investors are in the 20-29 age group, while 59 per cent involve those 40 years and above.
Some have cited possible reasons: the high risk factor involved in investing in the stock market; young people preferring to spend their money on property, cars and movies; a lack of education about how to invest, etc.
I have my own theories.
Another church in Seremban has been targeted – the Grace Global Prayer Church in Happy Garden, Rasah, Seremban, according to a twitter message from Lim Kit Siang.
It is the twelfth religious site – eleven of which are church properties – and the second in Seremban to be targeted since 8 January.
The incident at the new two-storey shoplot church occurred at around 8.00pm. Two window panes were found broken.
A private company based in Kuala Lumpur is conducting an interesting training programme in Johor called “Character and Attitude Training”.
The programme is targeted at 1,500 Malaysians – graduates, unemployed, retrenched workers and existing employees, according to the firm’s website.
It is part of a so-called “Skill Enhancement and Employability Development (Seed)” programme, which is a “capacity building initiative by Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA) intended to equip the talents in Johor with soft-skills as well as technical skills to increase the employability of the unemployed and performance of the existing talents in the Region”, according to a letter from the firm to participants.
Can we reverse the damage that is being done to our society, to the environment and to the social fabric?
Is there hope for the future in this era of climate chaos, dwindling resources and social problems?
Update: The St Elizabeth Catholic church in Kota Tinggi, Johor, was splattered with red paint at dawn, making it the 11th place of worship to be targeted since last Friday. It’s the first church in Johor to be targeted.
Earlier this morning, I received word from a church source that the PJ office of the Catholic Church’s lawyers, Fernandez and Selvarajah, was broken into last night and ransacked. A laptop was reportedly stolen. (More details here.)
Meanwhile, this is a piece I wrote for Asia Times:
Here are a couple of images from the Sikh temple along Jalan Haji Salleh near the former Sentul Railway Yard:
One of the large black ornamental stones found in the temple and the cracked mirror. – Photos tweeted by Tian Chua.
Police collected 18 such stones, said Tian Chua, who is MP for Batu, the area where the temple is located.
While we are rattled by the Allah controversy and the spate of attacks on places of worship, others are eyeing big bucks – in Sarawak.
The State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), one of the world’s largest utility firms, and 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) have signed an agreement to enter into joint venture negotiations to undertake projects reportedly worth up to RM37 billion (US$11 billion).
The agreement reportedly involves the construction of three hydroelectric dams and a smelter plant in the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (Score) – and that’s just for starters. What are they going to do with all that electricity? Feed it to power-guzzling smelters, it would seem – and perhaps transmit the rest to the peninsula? What kind of impact will that have on local indigenous people, their land and the environment, especially Sarawak’s rainforests (what’s left of them) and the biodiversity? Don’t ask.
A 100-year-old mirror at the entrance of a Sikh temple in Sentul was reportedly cracked after stones were flung at it at around 6.00pm.
The wall of the temple was also chipped. When contacted, a Selangor state exco member told me that temple reps collected about 20 black stones, about the size of a kiwi fruit and of the type used in landscape gardening, after the incident.
“They (the temple reps) are rattled and don’t want to play up the incident,” the exco member said.
Another incident has been reported in Seremban this morning, bringing the total number of church properties targeted to nine.
Some people are having trouble keeping track of the number of incidents; so here is my tally:
Only the Metro Tabernacle Church suffered serious damage.
M Bakri Musa has come up with a scathing blog post here, comparing the comments and reactions of various key personalities such as Najib, Khairy, Khalid Ibrahim, Anwar and Hadi.