Bumblebee in the Face

Friday, March 16, 2012

Bumblebee in the Face

Assalamu ‘Alaikum,

Bumblebee in the Face.

“Goodbye recruits “said the female voice as we entered the war zone. “Don’t you mean good luck recruits, “corrected the Captain. “No sir, its goodbye recruits,” insisted the lady officer. Those were the last words ringing in our ears as we entered the Singapore Universal Studios version of total apocalypse of the Transformers Warzone. Optimus, Bumblebee and Decepticon which were once just toys lying on the floor in Zahir’s room were now right in our face epitomising violence in the uppercase in this mad 4D world. We lost Tok Aboh after the Rapids hell of the Lost World leaving me, Mama, Uncle Ron and the three brave cadets, privates first class, Adlin, Zahir and Adila.
Ron didn’t want to come opting to chicken out with a book in the hotel quoting the long hazardous trip from Brisbane as an excuse, but I managed to convince him we need all able bodied men if we were to survive this mission. Not wanting to announce our arrival our motley group of world saviours entered Sentosa Island surreptitiously via the cable cars. Upon landing on the beach head our instructions were to overcome the Redline bus to head to our main target. On arrival at ground zero we had to fight off the Madagascarian wild animals. It was harrowing, a fat hippo, a nervous giraffe and a vain lion king can be a potent threesome that can overcome any lost adventurer. We survived that, only to end up in a dungeon with Shrek the green giant and his saliva showering donkey; yuk, that was horrible.

We left Tok Aboh to recuperate in the abandoned musolla whilst we continued with the mission. Pulling ranks Ron and I decided to pull aside and discuss strategy, and left it to Mama and the three little cadets to negotiate the aerial battles on the high flying machines. Mama later reported the team survived the ordeal although the less said the better about the free flowing tears and screams in Egypt’s Mummy world.

We arrived late in the night at our base camp in Selegie Road, mission accomplished. Ron had to rush to bed to get ready for an early wake up call to Changi in the morning whilst we will head for yet another battle, this time at the Causeway Immigration later in the day. It was an eventful week for the Zahid family and Uncle Ron in Singapore. Mum, the kids and retired Tok Aboh on vacation, whilst Ron and I fit in an Islamic Finance Conference held at the Singapore Management University. Me, a panelist expert speaker whilst Ron a keen believer and supporter of Islamic Finance. I came with the aim of moving industry thoughts from Islamic debt financing to Islamic equity financing. I believed I achieved my objective of capturing the audience’s imagination for this radical realignment of Islamic finance, throwing in the umbrella of understanding Islamic Economics as a pre requisite to understand Islamic banking. However the release of pent up feelings against the local authorities by the Singaporean Muslim delegates in response to my words was a rush of adrenalin for all present. We heard the voice of the Muslim minority who has suffered so much to see their religion sidelined and Islamophobised, if you’d pardon this liberal coinage of words.

I reflect now in the comfort of my home, why would a brother Asian race feel closer to a religion that came from far way from the West, and not to the religion so close to them, embraced by the majority of their neighbours and even their original countrymen. It is so easy to fall into the race trap and blame other races but oneselves; but I do believe the towering Muslims amongst us will agree, not an insignificant factor, is about our abject failure and reluctance to talk and introduce our religion to others.

Wassalam,

Zahid