From the desk of the Amazing ‘Ainur…

Assalamualaikum w.b.t and kia ora…

Hello, ladies and gentlemen and assorted others…I’m nearing the end of my easter break…already…I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, time really does fly when we’re having fun…and I really am having fun…I don’t do much actually but, still, I’m having the time of my life…I don’t travel anywhere, I don’t go out and meet new people, I don’t buy new books or watch new movies (though I did buy new CDs)…but I’m having fun…just spending time with myself and getting together and hanging out with a small group of pals…so I’d like to take this opportunity to thank nada, omma, fathi, mimi, sheila, kak ina and ana shirin for making my easter break fun and eventful…

I had the best time when nada and I tried to make bread/bun…we hosted a western-themed lunch party…and we decided to make my mommy’s “special” buns…I’ve never tried it before and I didn’t know that it would be hellish…the process of making ‘em, I mean…the buns are heavenly, the process of making ‘em is hellish…we tried making them six times… failure and acute heartache multiplied by six…that’s why I hate cooking…it’s just one drama after another (it is precisely because of this attitude that I cannot cook to save my life…my parents are not worried…yet…so I thought that maybe it’s not time for me to panic yet)…on the day that we were supposed to have the lunch party, we FINALLY got it right…thank God…I’ve lost count of how many times we changed our flour and yeast…we spent hours kneading that by the end of it, our arms were deliciously sore and limp and sometimes I felt like they weren’t even there…kneading bread dough makes for a very rigorous exercise…i think that kneading is the best way to go if you are aiming for more toned and muscular arms…though I’m not sure that muscular arms would look good on girls…unless you are a swimmer or a gymnast or a tennis player or a weight lifter or you’re Angelina Jolie, in which case people would forgive and overlook your muscly arms…sorry…that’s me digressing…

I’m sure you are all aware of the Virginia tech shooting…what US is now calling the deadliest campus massacre in all of its history…probably one of the deadliest mass massacres in the United States…and it happened just days away from the 8^th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting…which is today, April 20th…four days to be exact…it couldn’t have happened at a worse time…it was a catastrophic event, wasn’t it? 32 people shot in cold blood…then the shooter shot himself in the head…I hate to sound insensitive…I know that Americans are still mourning and all…but so many things about the Va. Tech shooting perplexed me… the first shooting happened at 7.15 am at one of the students’ dormitories…two people were killed…and the second one happened at 9.20 am at one of the academic blocks…there’s a two-hour gap between the first and second shooting…a lockdown was imposed only after the second shooting…can you imagine?…they knew that two people were already dead and there’s every possibility that a gunman’s on the loose in the campus ground and still classes went on like nothing had happened…I thought that university people are supposed to be smart people…the worst thing was most students and lecturers didn’t know about the shooting…the university people were very economical with the facts…bad, bad call…if the students and lecturers were informed about the first shooting they wouldn’t have turned up to class…they wouldn’t be sitting in the classrooms when the shooter decided to go on  a killing spree…some of the survivors wouldn’t have to witness the gruesome murder of their professors and classmates…imagine being there and seeing this guy storming into your classroom and shooting your lecturer and friends and not being able to help them…you were as vulnerable as everybody else in the classroom…you were at the mercy of the shooter, basically…I can’t even begin to imagine how helpless and hopeless they must feel…I wouldn’t want to wish that on anyone…had they been informed, these survivors could now live in blissful ignorance…

New videos, photos, letters and testimonies that have surfaced in the aftermath of the shooting painted the shooter as a loner…a weirdo…and possibly a psychopath…the FBI are now saying that he might have been picked on, bullied, probably isolated…he never fitted in…he didn’t feel at ease with himself, with other Va. Tech students…he didn’t “belong”…that’s what’s so tragic about this shooting rampage…I make it a point not to make bad things worse…if I see people acting weirdly, I try with all my might not to make him feel bad about himself…try not to embarrass him…try not to single him out…I try to be nice to them but if they don’t respond, I just let them be…I try to remember the ”do unto others….” rule…doesn’t come up to scratch sometimes, but i try…eric harris and dylan klebold, the columbine shooters, weren’t with the “in” crowd…they weren’t jocks, they probably weren’t the most outgoing and easygoing of boys…that doesn’t mean that other people can bully them…or laugh at them…what if they have “strange” interests? That doesn’t give other people the license to label them as social outcasts….guess what? Sometimes hurtful labels like that hurt people…hurt them so bad that they’d feel embolden to seek their revenge…and God help you then…so what if this Cho guy was a bit strange?…i’m not asking people to go out of their way to be nice to him or make him feel welcomed…he probably wouldn’t appreciate those kind of gestures…just don’t look at him like he’s a psycho…don’t pick on him….don’t make him feel like he’s the lowest form of life…don’t give him a reason to be aggressive and violent…I know that this sounds real good in theory but I really believe that it could work…what I’m asking is for people to be nice to each other…treat people with the respect and courtesy that they deserve…we’ve seen people get violent and kill just because they were mistreated in some form or another…surely there’s a lesson to be learned from these shooting rampages…the problem is we never learn…we see it clearly and still we ignore it…what does that say about us?

Another thing that pisses me off is the availability of guns…anybody can own a gun in the States…that right is enshrined in their constitution…every individual has a right to keep and bear arms…a lot of people think that they should make much-needed amendments to their constitution…I don’t think that that’s gonna help matters because the possibility of them amending their constitution is zilch…they won’t change it…not in my lifetime, at least…I’m ok with that…the thing that I disagree with however is how they make it so easy for people to own a gun…there’s currently 200 MILLION guns in private ownership in the States…that’s a lot of guns…sometimes these guns fell into the wrong hands…they often do, actually…they rarely check for criminal records, trace history of mental illnesses, etc…that’s when all hell breaks loose…one NRA rep said that Virginia’s probably the easiest place in the world to get a gun…the guy who sold the Glock to Cho said that he didn’t hesitate because Cho looked so normal…of course he looked normal, you moron…people who go into gun shops usually do…if they don’t, they won’t get their guns…they may be mentally unstable, but they’re not stupid…do they need to have the word “DERANGED MANIAC” tattooed on their forehead for the owners of gun stores to realize that they can’t sell guns to just about everybody? imagine what guns in the hands of convicted felons, jealous or furious husbands/wives, aspiring robbers/rapists/gunmen, troubled apathetic teenagers etc. can do…it’s one thing that they make it legal for people to own a gun, but making it readily available for ALL KINDS of people is another thing altogether…

And to think that Bush justifies his war plans by saying that other people’s countries need fixing…what about your own country then?…my advice to you, Mr. President, is to stop finding faults with other people…stop and look at your own backyard…you scorned people in the middle east because they teach their children to play with guns…you forget that war is the norm, rather than the exception, there…they are living in a perpetual state of war…they are living in the most dangerous place in the world, thanks to you and your buddy…that’s their excuse…what’s yours?…you prided yourself on being one of the safest countries in the world…what’s with the guns then?…fix your own country first, sir, and then we’ll talk…fix your problems first and then you can meddle in other people’s businesses…if you don’t, then I know of a name perfectly suited for people like you…and that’s a HYPOCRITE…..

‘ainur rahmah ellias