A tale of Greek's economy, according to The Economist

Folks,

This is an interestintg cartoon from this week's edition (Feb 21, 2015) of The Economist, a London-based weekly newspaper.

Only those who understands economics and the economic as well as political climate at Eurozone -- particularly in Greece -- would get this joke.

Am I Charlie?

Folks,

Last week, my senior managing editor Azam Aris wrote in his column in The Edge Malaysia, Jan 19, 2015, about a very interesting article titled "Am I Charlie?"

The article is reproduced below, or you can download here in PDF file.

Source: The Edge Malaysia, Jan 19, 2005

Source: The Edge Malaysia, Jan 19, 2005

His piece is in stark contrast to the editor of The Malaysian Insider, the sister publication of The Edge. You can read the article (reproduced below), which was taken from here.

Je Suis Charlie

By Jahabar Sadiq

The Charlie Hebdo massacre yesterday is an assault on journalism and freedom of expression. No one has a right to curtail or censor expression – be it with a government gazette or a gun.

The 12 who were killed yesterday, including four cartoonists and their colleagues from the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, were journalists penning their thoughts.

Any reply to such thoughts should not be from the business end of a gun. And if anyone thinks they are avenging or defending their faith or god or prophet by shooting and killing people, they are wrong.

Life does not work that way, no matter what religious scholars say.

Haven't they heard that the pen is mightier than the sword, that no army can stop an idea whose time has come? That an idea is like a virus, resilient and highly contagious?

If the three gunmen thought it would terrorise and end their satire – they got it wrong.
The world now knows more about Charlie Hebdo. The world now knows more that these people who profess to defend their religion cannot argue except by killing their opponents.

Their actions are pure terrorism and murder. If they are confirmed to be Muslims and say it is done in the name of Islam, they are the worst kind of Muslims – the ones who use religion to justify their bloodlust, their hate and their ignorance.

For too long around the world, Muslims have lived with their co-religionists using bullets and bombs to speak for their community and faith. No more.

We can no longer call Islam a religion of peace as long as there are these so-called Muslims who murder and maim, terrorise and tyrannise others for their perverted sense of religiosity.

Not unless we condemn them for their actions. Not unless we say unequivocally that Islam does not condone these acts of terror and murder. That Islam speaks about reason, love, charity and that all life is sacred.

The time has come for us to stand up against these fringe groups who only think that death to their enemies is the only answer to keep Islam or any other religion pure and perfect.

Because they only smear it with their ideas and actions. God needs no defenders, neither does any prophet. Our actions represent our faith, our religion – and not if we kill one another.

My faith is reflected in my journalism, to inform people so that they make informed decisions. Je suis Charlie. – January 8, 2015.

* Jahabar Sadiq runs The Malaysian Insider.

See more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/je-suis-charlie#sthash.QhqKrmXU.dpuf

It all started with the killing of journalists who worked at Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical magazine. This incident gave rise to the hash-tag #JeSuisCharlie, and #JeSuisAhmed, depending on whose school of thought or side of opinion you choose to lean on.

You can learn more about #JeSuisAhmed by reading this piece here and here.

I find this particular tweet to be very interesting.

I am not Charlie, I am Ahmed the dead cop. Charlie ridiculed my faith and culture and I died defending his right to do so. #JesuisAhmed
— Dyab Abou Jahjah (@Aboujahjah) January 8, 2015

Self Liberation

Folks,

I found this interesting Muslim cartoon, below, in my Facebook.

(source: The Muslim Show)

It talks about liberation, freeing something, some place or someone. In light with the recent cases, we have heard about liberating Syria, Iraq, Palestine etc.

While I agree that these countries urgently needed to be liberated from all the evil forces, I wonder whether we humans have considered of liberating ourselves -- our minds in particular, from all the evils surrounding us?

Sometimes, we talk so highly on the urgent need to liberate these places, but look at ourselves. Have we liberated ourselves from all the small and big sins? Have we completed what we are supposed to do (God's orders etc)?

The act to liberate is actually a jihad. This word often confuses people. It brings negative connotation to people in the sense that when they hear the word jihad, they immediately thought of killing people.

There are two forms of jihad -- the big one and the small one. The "small one" is about liberating and fighting the corrupts, the bad and the evil. This form of jihad is a tangible one, where it could mean war, when it is absolutely and really necessary. The small jihad can be acted upon publicly through law and order, punishment and correction.

And then there's the big jihad. The "big one" is about liberating yourself from all the evils in the world. It is about living honestly, doing good to people, and above all, to be a good Muslim especially in this tough time. This is the biggest and ultimate jihad. Liberating yourself from all the evils in the world.

Indeed, it is so true that the hardest thing is self-liberation, which is why in Islam, this is the biggest type of jihad. And yet, this term is still misunderstood by almost every living human in this planet Earth.

I particularly adore this comment from one Facebook user, where he went on to say that we should ...

Liberate ourselves , automatically you liberate the ummah [Muslim nation]... stand united and then no one can touch us. 

How do we liberate ourselves? The answers are for you to seek and find.

And as always, this post is to remind myself first as I am a human of many errors and mistakes.

Happy 2014!

Folks,

A newspaper is never called a newspaper if it does not have a cartoon in it.

And the cartoon below is a reflection of the 15% hike in power tariff, as announced recently by the Minister of Green Energy and Water.

--
Source: Reggie Lee. The Heat Newsweekly. Issue #14, Dec. 7th, 2013.