Doubling Gods

One day, a friend called me up, told me to wear the baju kurung and selendang to work the next day, because after Maghrib, we were going to visit a holy man. She had had a bit of a haunting recently, and it was affecting her marriage. While I digested the fact that she, a quantity surveyor and her husband, an accountant, actually believed in mumbo-jumbo, she turned up at my office and kidnapped me for the night. The holy man’s home was just an hour away.

It became more apparent to me, as we headed towards nowhere, that we were not going to meet a Datuk Harun Din type in a Darul Syifa setting. We were heading towards secondary forests and dirt roads. The fact that the trip had exceeded more than an hour made me nervous.

“Who are we visiting?” I asked my friend.

“Uncle Din.”

“And who is Uncle Din?” (more…)

Posted: February 28, 2005 Ulasan (0)

Tsunami, ujian ‘Tuhan yang buas’?

Fathi Aris Omar : Tiada Noktah

‘Gelombang besar di pelabuhan’, terjemahan kepada bahasa Melayu, daripada dua kata Jepun, ‘tsu’ dan ‘nami’. Disebut pelabuhan kerana di sini tenaga air laut terkumpul. Ombak sederas 500 hingga 900 km sejam dari pusat gempa, menjadi semakin tinggi, boleh mencecah lima hingga lapan meter, apabila menghampiri pantai. Gempa di laut melebihi 6 mata di skala Ritcher cenderung, walau tidak pasti, menghasilkan tsunami.

Tergempar dengan kedahsyatan gempa dan ombak maha besar itu, ramai orang tiba-tiba condong merujuk kalimat-kalimat agama – tiba-tiba sahaja semua orang berdosa, layak direjam dengan murka Tuhan. Di tengah kebingungan akibat dahsyatnya skala bencana, agama menjadi semakin laris.

Sehingga akhir Januari, daerah-daerah Aceh dan Sumatera Utara mencatatkan korban lebih 100,000 orang, hilang (lebih 12,000) dan di khemah-khemah pengungsian (lebih 400,000). (more…)

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