Annoyed by Principles

I have a number of principles, which sometimes I tell others when some topic came up. For example:

#1.
why you don't buy Honda cars?
I boycott Japanese products.
Why?
Bla bla bla

#2.
why you don't download movies?
I don't support piracy.
Why?
Bla bla bla

#3.
why you don't print these out?
It is not environmental friendly.

#4.
why you don't want to eat KFC?
They are cruel.
Why?
Bla bla bla

I soon came to realise that maybe I should stop blasting out these principles to others. Some people called me a hypocrite because sometimes I do go against these principles, buying a Japanese branded guitar, downloading songs that I couldn't find in record stores here, printing out tabs, and eating KFC for a colleague's farewell. For me, every boycott have to be appended with the phrase "unless there are no acceptable alternative". To them, this is all hypocrite is all about, and I am annoyed every time I am called a hypocrite.

I also came to realise that I might have annoyed others sometimes when they tell me about their principles, for example here
http://kiwlm.blogspot.com/2008/10/celebrating-christmas.html

So down with principles, I will try tagging along with the flow although it does not represent what I think:

#1.
why you don't buy Honda cars?
I don't like their looks.
Oh I see.

#2.
why you don't download movies?
I don't want to fill up my broadband's monthly quota.
Oh I see.

#3.
why you don't print these out?
I don't have printer at home.
Oh I see.

#4.
why you don't want to eat KFC?
They are too oily.
Oh I see.

There, hope those make others and myself less annoyed.

Halal Food

When I have a choice between meat and vege in a meal, I will choose the vege. When I have to eat meat, I prefer Halal Food. I felt lucky that I am staying in Malaysia where Halal Food is easy to obtain.

There are a lot of filtering criteria for Halal Food, I will just point out 3:

• A specific way of slaughter

I have never visited a Muslim slaughter house before, but I have visited the Chinese Pasar a lot of times, and looking at how the Chinese people slaughter chickens still give me goosebumps!

I have been told by my father that animals excrete toxic into their body when they are under intense pain, and this type of toxic is not good for consumption of the human body. Researching further more into the Halal way of slaughtering, I think that the method tried to make the food as harmless as possible to the human being, while trying to cause less pain to the animals that are being slaughtered.

There have been another debate about whether the animals should be stunned first before being slaughtered to further reduce the pain that the animal feels, but I will leave that to you to research further more if you are interested.

• Fishes

According to wikipedia, "The fish must die out of water and because of natural suffocation in the free air, on the ground or on the deck of the fishing boat".

A while ago I have read (and felt very disturbed) on the Internet that there is a group of scientist who claim fish do not feel pain. Although this theory is bombarded by a lot of other scientists and animal activists, I won't be surprised if its true and Islam knew this long ago.

• Amphibians

This is a mixture of the above two, and whenever in doubt, don't eat them! Smart guideline.

This is one of the areas that I like about Islam, hope to discover a couple more. :)

Not enough money to buy a house?

One day over lunch
J's Mom: Why don't you and your husband buy a house?

J: The houses nowadays are too expensive!

J's Mom: Why not you buy a cheaper one first like where B is staying? And then upgrade when you have money.

J: I don't really like that place.

J's Mom: Well, there are nice houses in Kota Kemuning and Puchong which doesn't cost a bomb.

J: I don't like those places, I like PJ. That day we went to shop around damansara area, they are selling houses at 600k! Its so expensive! Last time during your days its so much cheaper, this house is only like what, 80k?

J's Mom: Yeah, its cheaper last time.

Well, I do NOT agree! I did a simple calculation comparing me and my dad (which I always like to do).

My dad's first job as an engineer in the government sector pays him RM400 a month. He bought a house later at around RM80k.

My first job as a software engineer in the private sector pays me RM2000 a month. So the house today should cost how much? 80k/400 * 2000 = 400k.

I am staying in a much cheaper place now because I can't afford a RM400k house. It proved to me one thing, my parents are much better at saving money and I am much better at spending them.

So the conclusion for my case is = the house is MORE expensive last time! But the standards have changed, my parents do not care previously when Subang Jaya is in the jungle, but now, I start seeing friends and colleagues (and also myself) who have multiple criteria when selecting a house that inflates the price of the house that we ended up buying,

Shah Alam area? Low class la.

Puchong? Need to pay toll la.

Kota Kemuning? Too far la.

Cheras? Traffic jam lar.

...

Stop Digging Your Nose

Friend: Have you heard? Our ex-minister might be charged in court for sodomy, do you know sodomy is illegal?
Me: Oh, its not sodomy, he might be charged for oral sex.
Friend: Oral sex also illegal?
Me: Yeah, because they say its not natural.
[after 10 seconds pause]
Me: I think digging the nose should be illegal as well!
Friend: .........

How should we interpret whether something is natural or not?

I don't think cutting our hair is natural, we should just let it grow. Same with our finger nails.

I don't think wearing clothes is natural, we are born without it and we are the only specifies that wears clothes.

I don't think driving cars is natural, we are born with legs!

And to repeat, our nostrils are supposed to be used for breathing, its not natural to put our fingers in there.

After finished watching the Confession of Pain,

Friend: Actually, Tony Leung is not a bad guy.
Me: Why?
Friend: Because he have a reason why he commits murder!
Me: I think most of the bad guys in our world also have their reasons for commiting crimes.

Since a long time ago, I have been taught that Greed is the root of all evil. And most of the crimes are commited because of Greed. Now I think that there is another level that is deeper than Greed, which is the Fairness.

Greed might explains why bad guys commit crimes, but sometimes its hard to explain why good guys commit crimes, and I think its because most of the time, they feel that the world should be a fair place.

My Dad have once told me, that to compete with the bad guys, sometimes the good guys have to use dirty tricks as well, but he has no answer when I asked that "doesn't that makes the good guy, a bad guy also?". He just explained that not everything is as easy as it seems when it comes to the real world.

Now I finally have an answer for myself. A good guy does not need to use dirty tricks, if he is not competing with the bad guy, and if he is not thinking that the world should be a fair place. Whatever the bad guy accomplished, the good guy should never think that he should accomplish those as well. Whatever the bad guy did, the good guy should not think about retaliation.

When asked the question "this is not fair, why does this happen (to me)?", Buddhism attempt to answer this question with the concept of reincarnation. That if things are not fair in this life, it will be when taking all your lives into account. You suffer in this life because of the bad things that you did in your previous life, to make it fair. When you do good things and did not get any rewards at the end of it, you will be rewarded in your next life, to make it fair. I think other religions have problems (correct me if I am wrong) answering this type of question, besides just asking its followers to just have faith.

So to me, Thinking That The World Is/Should Be Fair, IS the root of all evil.